


Perfecting the Latte Heart

by ReychieCakes



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, Fluff, Friendship, Getting Together, Kageyama is Hinata's barista trainer, M/M, Slow Burn, mention of asanoya and daisuga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23564443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReychieCakes/pseuds/ReychieCakes
Summary: Kageyama Tobio is a technical genius in the art of beverage crafting. Tasked one day with moving his shifts to the morning to train their newest barista, he was hesitant to accept. But with the wish of change burning at the back of his mind, maybe this would spark a much needed transformation in his usual day to day life.What he wasn't prepared for was the fact that his new coworker was beyond talkative, full of life, and over all quite terrible at the job. How was he going to survive the next two months?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kageyama Tobio & Nishinoya Yuu, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 52
Kudos: 366





	1. Chapter 1

“How wonderful, another Friday night spent together.”

The cold words left Tsukishima Kei’s lips the moment Kageyama entered the front door of the cafe. Unbothered, he kept walking without even so much of a glance towards his tall coworker, marching right past him and into the swinging doors of the backroom. 

Once he was confident he was completely alone, Kageyama let out a dreadful sigh as he removed his jacket and hung it up on a free hook. He glanced at the time displayed on the computer on the back desk, reading that it was 4:50 pm. With an extra 10 minutes to spare before his shift started, he sunk into the office seat in front of the computer, mentally preparing for the evening that was to come.

It was only late September, a mere few weeks since the college opened back up. But with week after week spending the majority of his shifts closing with Tsukishima, it felt as though their summer away from each other was a distant memory. 

The two of them, along with an expansive team, worked at the chain coffee shop Stirbox. This specific location that they worked at was right in the heart of their College’s campus, making it a fairly high volume store. It definitely had a different vibe than a normal Stirbox you would find in the city, considering that every single worker in the store was a student at the college. 

_“Students helping students!”_ Kageyama could hear the timid voice of his district manager Takeda announce at one of their store meetings at the back of his mind.

He wasn’t wrong though. Everyone knew that most of the demographic that entered that store were students from around campus, and the few who weren’t were professors. 

Kageyama had worked at this store for the entirety of his second semester in his first year. He always had a passion for good coffee, and even more devotion to creating beautifully crafted beverages. There was something so satisfying to him when making the perfect foam for a drink, and creating artwork through his craft as he would pour the milk. He very quickly became known for his exquisite latte art, which he was proud of, not that he would tell anyone of course.

Making drinks was by far his favourite part of the job, but unfortunately there was a lot more to being a barista than creating delicious espresso drinks for the sleep deprived young adults that would enter their doors. 

Kageyama groaned once more at the idea of closing tonight yet again with his tall bothersome coworker. He only works a few times a week, but since the new school semester started, all of his shifts have been closing. And unluckily for him, Tsukishima more often than not had the exact same schedule. 

Another tall man entered the backroom, making himself jump at how loud the swinging doors hit the wall when he entered. He had a meek smile on his freckled face as he went to grab some lids off a shelf.

“Hey Kageyama,” he said with a small wave of his free hand. Since Kageyama usually entered work with his face straight to the ground, he more often than not missed whoever was already working on the floor.

“Yamaguchi,” he responded with a curt nod before he exited back onto the floor. 

In the very least, their store was busy enough to close with three people, giving Kageyama and Tsukishima a human barrier to help keep them sane through their evenings. Lately it’s been Yamaguchi as the third person, much to Kageyama’s dismay. Not that he didn’t necessarily like him, it was more so he just could not comprehend for the life of him why he thought so highly of his dear “Tsukki!”. 

If not Yamaguchi being there, it was usually Asahi, one of the store’s supervisors. And as much as he was quite the likable gentle giant, he was sometimes difficult to close with for the reason that he easily gets stressed out, and fears of falling behind on all of their closing tasks if it’s a little too busy. Regardless, he was good at the job, and that is all that really matters to Kageyama. 

Peering once more at the clock, he read 4:58 pm. Deciding that mental preparation time was now over, he reached into a bin of green aprons, quickly putting one on. He stepped onto the floor in the midst of tying his apron on, and was met with the sight of a third man working. 

The man gave him a firm yet genuine smile when they made eye contact, and he approached Kageyama while untying his own apron. He rested a hand on his shoulder. 

“Fairly quiet night so far, so I went ahead on cleaning up and closing one of the espresso machines,” Daichi explained, before letting go and taking off his apron. 

“Thank you,” Kageyama expressed, nodding at him. With a return of a nod, Daichi left into the back room. 

It was an unspoken truth between all the baristas that Daichi was the leader of the store. Being the most stern supervisor working there, he seemed to always have a good head on his shoulders, and everyone trusted him to make sure shifts went by smoothly. And since their manager was usually not present, it can be tough to run a team without a captain. 

Daichi exited the backroom with a jacket and gloves on, walking to the exit with conviction. 

“Have a good close, boys!” he waved on his way out the door. 

“Tell Suga I say hello!” Yamaguchi waved back. Daichi gave him the biggest smile, and then he was gone. 

* * *

The first two hours of the shift went by smoothly, with a steady flow of customers entering and leaving respectively. Kageyama was on bar, as he usually was. Yamaguchi was positioned at the cash register, taking people’s orders and cashing them out, leaving Tsukishima to be the one to start the cleaning tasks.

This is how all their nights went when the three of them worked together. They were all positioned where they were the strongest, so there was no need to change it around. Still, Kageyama found that his evening shifts felt as though they were becoming longer and longer, and it had nothing to do with the autumn nights stealing away sunlight. It was becoming a little tedious, and Kageyama felt himself missing his old midday shifts during peak hours for students to come in the doors. Sometimes when it was quiet enough for his mind to wander, he almost wished for some sort of change.

As if his mind was being read, he noticed through the all glass front wall of the store that his manager was walking towards the entrance. Immediately straightening his posture and attempting to make his face seem more approachable, his manager entered.

“Hello,” Kageyama greeted loudly and a little too forcefully, causing Tsukishima to snicker behind him as he was in the midst of wiping down a counter.

“Hello Ukai-san!” Yamaguchi addressed more genuinely than Kageyama’s attempt. 

“Hey,” Tsukishima tersely said, turning around from his now clean counter, “why are you here at this time?”

Ukai’s eyebrow slightly twitched at the brusque greeting from Tsukishima, but shrugged it off.

“Good evening,” he spoke, doing a quick glance at the state of his store. Deciding he was satisfied with the work he saw before him, he continued, ”I know it’s pretty uncommon for me to come here past afternoon but I just wanted to see how you were all doing.”

Kageyama looked at him intently. He immediately did not believe his manager’s words, because he would not come in when he’s not scheduled himself unless he needed something.

“And I also wanted to speak with you, Kageyama.”

Ah, there it was, the ulterior motive. Kageyama gulped loudly and nodded quickly, causing a lopsided smile to form on Ukai’s face and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble or anything. Tsukishima, could you take over for him on bar while we speak in the back?” 

Privately talking to him? Kageyama felt fear slowly creep down his neck like a spider as he walked towards the backroom with unintentional robotic steps. He could practically feel the sneer on Tsukishima’s face on his back even though he couldn’t see him. 

Once they entered the back room, Kageyama stood before his manager stiffly, causing Ukai to let out a small laugh.

“Relax, will ya? I already told you that you’re not in trouble! I just wanted to speak to you about your future scheduling.” 

With the tension in his shoulders slowly subsiding, he nodded before his manager continued.

“So I’m in a bit of a predicament right now and I was hoping you would be able to help out,” Ukai explained as he made his way over the calendar hanging on the wall. He continued, “I’m not sure if you’ve heard already, but we have a new hire here who started at the beginning of the semester a few weeks ago. And he’s…”

The slight pause in Ukai’s dilemma was alarming to Kageyama, and Ukai laughed at himself for his own suspicious language.

“Well he’s incredibly dedicated to the job. He cares about his position as a barista a lot, not to mention he’s also a very kind young man. He’s been working only opening shifts with Ennoshita since he’s started, which is why you two haven’t met yet. But here’s the problem.

“Ennoshita, being the smart and bright kid he is, got accepted into a prestigious exchange he had been working towards, which is huge for him. But that also means he will be gone for the rest of the semester. So I’m in need of a strong barista who can finish up training our new guy, and continue working with him in the mornings.”

Kageyama’s eyes widened at this. “You want me to train him?”

Now that was something he was not expecting to happen today. Kageyama is technically the newest worker in that store, being hired closely after Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were. And even though he had been working for a total of more than a few months, he was surprised that Ukai wouldn’t request someone who had more seniority than him. 

Ukai nodded, “I do, I think you have all the skills he is in need of learning, and I have full faith that you will do an excellent job at explaining the pieces that Ennoshita has not been able to quite reach yet.”

“Why me, though? Why not someone like Sugawara-san, or even our store’s other openers?”

“Suga’s schedule this semester prevents him from having morning availability to work. And for our usual openers, well… I think their energy wouldn’t mesh well with our new member first thing in the morning.”

It made sense in Kageyama’s mind. Besides Ennoshita, the other two openers were Nishinoya and Tanaka. Between the two of them, they had enough energy to power up their entire store. It was overwhelming to see someone be so lively at 5 am, and keeping that same effervescent aura throughout the many hours they work. 

“So, would you be okay with switching to only opening shifts for the next two months? We would begin immediately on Monday.”

Kageyama toyed with the idea in his mind. That is definitely a big shift for him, quite literally. He would be going from starting work at 5 pm to 5 am in the matter of two days, which wouldn’t be a problem class wise since most of his classes were in the afternoon. But this would also mean that the person he would be working with everyday is currently bad at the job. And working with the weakest link is not something he was prepared to deal with.

“Of course, you will get a bonus for being his trainer. And also, I know you’ve been working the exact same shift for the past month with the same people. It could be nice to be able to work with others that you don’t see too often.”

Ukai smirked at the last part of his sale’s pitch. He knew that part would catch Kageyama’s attention, seeing the visible shift in the way his face showcased is decision making.

As tough as it is working with the new guy is, nothing is worse to Kageyama than having to see Tsukishima’s taunting smiles, or colourless insults multiple times a week. 

“I’ll do it.”

Ukai jumped to his feet, with a toothy grin on his face. 

“Great! I knew I could count on you. I’ll send you a text with your new shifts coming up next week later tonight,” he stated as he made his way to the door.

“I think this could be really good for you, Kageyama. There’s a lot that both of you have to offer, and I truly believe you two could learn from one another.” 

And with that, Ukai was out of sight. A little bewildered by the fast exchange, Kageyama sauntered back onto the floor, reaching for one of the cartons of flavoured milk they sold.

“I’m going on my break now,” he announced as he stabbed the straw into the small box in his hand.

“What, that wasn’t enough of a break for you?” Tsukishima turned, clearly unimpressed with the amount of time he had already missed. Kageyama merely shrugged, taking his first sip of his milk. Tsukishima audibly sighed at this.

“Seriously, you work at a coffee shop. You can have any drink you want, and yet you always choose the one option we have for _children_.” The disgust wasn’t hard to miss in his voice, and as much as Kageyama was prepared to chime back, he realized it wasn’t worth wasting his break in a yelling match. So he simply chose to ignore him. 

Removing his apron as he made his way into the back once more, he left it to sit on the desk, before collapsing onto the office seat once again. 

He definitely was not going to miss working with Tsukishima, that was for sure.

* * *

The cold air slapped him hard against the face as he pushed through the early morning trek to work. It was dark and windy, leaves threatening to thrash against Kageyama in his pursuit. It was a bothersome breeze to walk through, but he would happily take it over the grueling heat of the month before.

It had been a long time since he had been awake before 5 am. More specifically, it had been months since he had been up before even 11 am. His schedule did not demand him to be awake anytime before that, and Kageyama took full advantage of it. So getting up at 4:30 am was a wake up call that he was ready to fight back.

A grumpy yawn escaped his lips as he offhandedly thought about how he must rework his sleep schedule, rubbing his eyes as his coffee shop was in view. Peaking at the time on his phone, he noticed the time was 4:55 am. In the very least, his student apartment room could not be any closer to the store than it already was, leading his mind to try to work out exactly how much sleep he can get before having to wake up for these shifts.

The clockwork of math in his mind moved in slow motion as he fiddled with his keys in his pocket. To try to figure out something so ludicrous at this time of day was asking way too much of his half asleep mind, he concluded.

Being only a few meters away from his store, he pulled out the keys from his pocket before a burst of an orange blur flew past him, nearly making him drop the lanyard. His eyes followed where the blur stopped, and a huge gust of wind pushed by as he realized what that force was.

Standing at the entrance of the store was a short rosy cheeked boy with a nest of hair that looked like fire flailing in every direction, the powerful wind pushing through it. The small boy seemed to be panting, and Kageyama stood almost incredulously before him, completely confused by his running, but even more confused by the disappointment he felt losing the race he didn’t know he was in. 

He made a mental note to arrive first at the door tomorrow, as he took a step closer to his assumed new coworker. He looked down towards him, towering over the small individual. 

Without missing a beat, a huge grin formed on the stranger’s face.

“You’re the one taking over for Ennoshita-san, right?” his smile grew wider as he took a step back. “I’m Hinata Shouyou!” 

Kageyama was stunned to see such remorseless energy first thing in the morning, it almost felt like a crime to be so awake at this time. 

“Kageyama Tobio,” he offhandedly introduced as he unlocked the door, and his speedy colleague zoomed through and into the backroom. Kageyama blinked at this before lethargically making his way in too. By the time he entered the backroom, Hinata had already taken off his coat and scarf, and was finishing up tying his apron. Racing past his sleepy coworker, he switched on all the lights in one swift movement before running through the swinging doors, with loud noises escaping his lips. 

Kageyama wasn’t sure if it was the uncalled for blinding lights or the display of such exuberant raw energy that pissed him off, but he knew regardless that this morning was going to take a lot out of him.

Following Hinata's boisterous entrance onto the floor, he noticed him beginning the opening tasks with a larger than life smile permanently on his lips as he hummed loudly to himself. An audible sigh left Kageyama’s lips without any guilt. 

He was a mere 2 minutes into his first shift with his new everyday coworker, and even though he couldn’t exactly pinpoint where boiling frustration came from, he knew one thing for certain. 

Training this new guy is going to be a lot harder than he anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello all, barista here! i've been off work for a few weeks now, and i miss it dearly. and well, i chose to spend my newfound free time with catching up on the haikyuu manga and poof came this bad boy. i'm gonna be honest, i am brand new to this site. and new to fanfic writing. so hopefully i will do it justice! 
> 
> thanks all!


	2. Chapter 2

Kageyama Tobio could be described in many ways. To customers, he was a stoic coffee master. To his coworkers, he was a vigilante team member whose social skills were closer to the questionable side. 

But there was one characteristic that Kageyama, and everyone else that knew him for that matter, knew he was not. 

And that was patient.

The morning duo was now half an hour into their shift together, finishing up the final touches of their pastry case before unlocking the door for the world to come in. It was still grim outside, wind blowing hard through the dark abyss, and would stay that way until the third coworker came in hours later. 

Kageyama was silent during their setup, but the frustration brewing within him was not discreet in the slightest while listening to Hinata hum very loudly. He shook his head as he grabbed a mug and poured himself one of the already brewed coffees sitting in a large urn. Filling the mug to the top, he leaned against the counter, closing his eyes peacefully. He took his first sip of the coffee, the hot liquid burning down his throat in the most euphoric was possible. He could feel his lips creep into a small, barely there smile hiding behind his cup, and for that very small moment, life felt okay.

“How can you drink it like that?” 

His momentary zen was crushed at the voice of his wide eyed coworker, looking at him as though he was an alien. He lowered his cup and gave him a questioning stare down.

“I mean, I find coffee gross to begin with. But to drink it black?” His face crunching into disgust, arms wrapping around his apron covered body.

“You don’t like coffee?” Kageyama asked quizzically, before moving towards the espresso machine, and preparing a shot of espresso.

This was definitely going to be a long morning.

“Not really,” he shrugged. “I actually avoid caffeine anytime I can. Makes me feel a little too shaky, and plus I don’t need the added energy.”

_At least he’s self aware_. Kageyama noted as he added his shot of espresso to his cup once it finished pouring. He took a huge gulp of his liquid stamina as he decided to move on from the conversation. 

“So,” Kageyama began slowly, putting down his now half consumed coffee. “What do you know so far?”

Hinata tapped his chin, very visibly contemplating the question. A big ‘hmmm’ escaped his lips as his toe joined into the tapping. Maybe it was a big question, Kageyama realized, but the animated pondering of his trainee made him want to scoff at the childish looking behaviour. 

“Well. I know all of the opening tasks!” He explained, causing Kageyama to sigh as his gaze drifted away further. Hinata blushed when he realized that was already very apparent, considering they had done just that. Ignoring his accidental obvious comment, he quickly continued, “I also know how to be positioned at the cash register. I know how to mark down drink orders properly, as well as handle any pastries ordered.”

Kageyama nodded, and just then their first customer of the day entered the front door. She looked absolutely exhausted, as though sleep was something she had not met with in a long time. He spotted the textbooks sticking out of her purse, and halfheartedly guessed _midterm_ in his mind. 

“Good morning!” Hinata squaked, causing the girl to jolt in surprise of the sheer volume of his voice.

“G-Good morning… “ she exclaimed, scratching her short brown hair. She yawned before she continued, “can I have a large triple shot latte please.”

Kageyama could see Hinata make the slightest reaction of shock, causing him to want to shake his head dismay. It seemed like he was afraid of caffeine. 

It didn’t matter to Kageyama as he watched him punch the drink order onto the screen in front of him with ease, the smallest ounce of relief coursing through him. As long as he knows how to do one position properly, it doesn’t matter if he sucks at everything else. This was something he could work with. 

“Anything else?” Hinata asked, and the young student shook her head. Kageyama took this as his opportunity to grab the large sized hot cup, and brought it over to the bar. Instinctively he began pouring the milk in a steaming pitcher, before bringing it into the steam wand. He pulled the lever and dragged the metal pitcher down slowly, the loud noise it initially produced seizing its screaming. Leaving the pitcher to queue the three espresso shots, he heard the noise of the labelling sticker print as he had already almost completed the beverage. He could hear Hinata gasp in awe.

“Wow! You’re fast, Kageyama!” he exclaimed, walking closer to him. In hindsight, Kageyama should’ve probably had Hinata make the drink, since it was an easy one and he could gauge how far he is with his bar skills. But the compliment made his lips twitch into a goofy looking sort of smile, causing Hinata’s eyes to widen for a second, before he completely turned his body to the zombie of a customer leaning her head against the wall with eyes half lidded. 

“So!” he forcefully began, once again causing the customer to slightly jump in surprise. “What are you doing waking up so early?”

She chuckled consciously, a small smile forming instantly on her lips. She pulled some hair behind her ear, “you say that as if I had gotten any sleep at all in the past 24 hours.”

A loud ‘woah’ escaped Hinata’s lips, making the customer giggle even more. Kageyama half listened to this exchange as he was more focused on pouring his milk into the now espresso filled cup. 

“I have a midterm this morning. You know how it goes sometimes,” she sheepishly grinned. Hinata quickly lifted his hands up in a praying gesture, motioning to the sky.

“I will pray to the midterm gods that you will do well!” 

As Hinata ended his proclamation, Kageyama finished up creating a beautiful leaf in the cup. He handed the drink off, leaving both Hinata and the student to gasp at the intricacy. With the venation and shape of the leaf poured in such a steady way, it looked as if it was blowing in the very wind outside of the store.

“Thank you,” she spoke in awe, before reaching for a lid and covering the top disappointingly. 

“Goodluck on your midterm!” Hinata shouted as she made her out the door. She halted for a moment, before turning towards them with a smile to match her slowly waving hand. 

“Thanks! I will definitely need it!”

The moment she exited the store, Hinata swivelled around immediately to Kageyama, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Can you teach me how to do cool latte art?!”

“No.” The words escaped Kageyama’s mouth before he realized. Hinata surveyed him with a frown that looked as though it was about to have tears trailing it. Kageyama let out a sigh before reaching for his cup of coffee once more, finishing it swiftly. It had been awhile since he had truly consumed caffeine in such a desperate way he notices as he thinks back to his intense sleeping in all the time.

“Why not!”

Kageyama let out a noise of annoyance, before he explained, “it takes time to master it. The first step is to perfect steaming the milk, so you can create the perfect microfoam. And everything is important in those few moments; the way you hold the pitcher, the amount of time you let the steam wand sit atop the layer of milk.”

Hinata was nodding intently at what he was saying, clearly taking mental notes of everything. Although, the look on his face made it seem as though he was not fully confident on what he was talking about. Still, the motivation was present in his demeanor, which made Kageyama feel slightly fascinated. There were very few baristas at this store who could do the art, and the ones who didn’t know how to did not care to learn.

“What is the easiest design to make?”

“A heart.” Kageyama responded quickly, lightly placing his now dirty mug into the empty bin of dishes. A light noise of confirmation left Hinata’s lips, pondering once more at this new information. Kageyama opened his mouth to move on from the conversation but was immediately cut off.

“If I can make a perfect heart, can you teach me how to make other cool designs?” he blurted out, that same sparkle in his eyes making a reappearance, and Kageyama hung his head low in defeat.

“If you can make perfect foam, then I will think about teaching you.”

Hinata jumped up in celebration, a toothy grin forming instantly. He held his hand out hopefully.

“Deal.”

Kageyama hesitated at first, eyeing the extended hand as though it would hurt him. He mentally shrugged it off and shook the hand firmly. When they let go of each other, Hinata faltered back with a sigh, arms crossing over his chest.

“Wow, Kageyama. You have such little faith in me that I can’t even make proper foam?”

“There’s a difference between proper foam and microfoam. And only microfoam has the right texture to be able to turn the foam into a design,” Kageyama explained, his coworker nodding once more. He was quick to believe that he would soon be regretting his mindless agreement. Looking at the espresso bars in front of him, he asked, “how are your bar skills anyway?”

The way that Hinata immediately sunk into himself was not a good sign. His now slouched body to match the diminishing determination melting off his face turned away slowly, eyeing the steam wand with a fearful glance.

“Well…” he began, clearing his throat. “To be honest with you, I would say they are… subpar. But there's a reason why!”

He jumped towards Kageyama, his entire demeanor flipping back to how he once was. Seeing how fast this new hire could easily showcase how he was feeling was unnerving to him.

“Ennoshita-san and I have only spent the last few shifts we worked together slowly going over how to use all these fancy machines.” Hinata motioned towards the advanced looking espresso machine before them. 

Kageyama narrowed his stare on his smaller coworker. “Didn’t you start working here almost a month ago? Why did the beverage crafting training take so long to start?”

Hinata let out a sheepish laugh, turning away once more as his cheeks formed a light peach on them. 

“Learning and memorizing what all the drinks were took way longer than Ennoshita-san had anticipated.”

Kageyama’s precarious glance seemed to be burning a hole into Hinata, causing him to scurry a few steps away from the scary look. 

Unintentionally frightening his trainee, Kageyama moved on without a second thought as he grabbed a small cup from the stack near them, and presented it to the counter.

“Make me a latte.”

Hinata crept up to the cup slowly, identifying the object as if it were foreign. Kageyama faintly thought that he looked like a small animal about to try a new food for the first time.

“Any specifications for the drink?” he asked hesitantly. Kageyama shook his head.

“Plain old simple latte. I will try it and see what’s wrong with it.” he explained bluntly, causing Hinata to cross his arms.

“No faith in me,” he muttered to himself under his breath, repeating his earlier notion. He took the cup in his hand as he looked up, being met with an agitated coworker.

“And once I see where you need to work on, we will begin fixing it immediately.”

“Alright alright, I got it.”

The enthusiasm of Hinata faded slowly within the next minute of him preparing and making the drink. Beginning with over pouring the milk in the pitcher, which was then followed by fumbling hands as he gripped the metal pitcher as it entered the steam wand, causing loud screeches from it being turned on and not fully submerged in milk. His shaky hands accidentally lost grip of the paper cup before him, almost missing the beginning of the espresso shot he had cued.

Kageyama was about ready to walk out of the store and beg Manager Ukai to give him his evening shifts back, fully prepared to explain that the barista trainer lifestyle was out of his repertoire of work. His mindless daydream was cut short when Hinata presented him with the drink, hoping for the best.

“There you go Kageyama, your small latte.” he announced as if he were handing it off to an actual customer. 

Just by lifting up the cup Kageyama could instantly tell that the drink was way too light, meaning that there was too much foam. He cautiously brought the drink up to his lips and took a sip, before immediately pulling it away with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

“Too hot!” he uttered, causing Hinata’s head to hang low. 

“Anything else?”

Beyond the heat, the drink was an absolute disaster.

“It tastes like a burnt cappuccino made by someone who doesn’t know what milk is.”

The words hit Hinata right in the chest, as he let out a painful yelp. 

“What’s so bad about it!”

“The foam is really bad.” Kageyama never held back, and even the glassy eyes of his eager new team member was not going to stop him. “First off, this is so much foam that you can’t even call this a latte anymore. It’s closer to a bone dry cappuccino.”

“What does that even mean!” 

“Bone dry: no milk to the drink, just foam. And secondly, I don’t know how you managed to make the foam so bubbly yet dense, but it is not a pleasant feeling in my mouth. Not to mention this milk is certainly burnt, did you even pay attention when you were steaming it?!”

“Of course I was!” Hinata was defensive, taking a strong step towards his trainer. “I just... need some more practice!”

“You need more than just practice.” Kageyama countered, taking an automatic footstep towards the man in front of him. 

Their staring competition quickly turned into a showdown, neither wanting to back down. It wasn’t until a very apparent noise of someone clearing their throat destroyed their visual fight, and Kageyama turned quickly to follow the voice.

“Tobio-chan?”

The sight in front of him made Kageyama want to pour the burnt latte/cappuccino disgrace all over himself, that way his burns would allow him to leave work immediately. Before him were two men with laptop bags over them. One of them had an intense demeanor, with his smug stance and unbothered facial expression. 

The other, taller more expressive individual animatedly rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses, fake glee pouring out of his smile.

“Has my favourite barista come back to morning shifts!?” 

The amount of fakeness oozing out of his delivery and chipper smile was enough for Kageyama to want to throw in the apron and never turn back. 

Of all the regulars he had ever encountered, there was none that quite compared to the great king standing before him. 

“Oikawa-san,” Kageyama gritted his teeth barbarically, then turned to the other man standing closely next to him. “Iwaizumi-san. It’s nice to see you again.”

The pain in his voice was impossible to miss as Hinata looked at him quizzically. 

“Don’t try too hard Tobio-chan! You look like you’re about to hurt yourself!”

Ignoring his comment, Kageyama quickly typed into the screen in front of him two drink orders, before quickly leaving the scene as he retreated to the bar. He started to make a drink with his eyes impossible to make contact with.

“Ah, seems like Kageyama has already punched in your orders!” Hinata announced, causing Oikawa’s death stare at Kageyama to dissipate. 

“How do you know my order hasn’t changed?” he called out to the hyper focused barista making his beverage.

“I know because you hate change, Oikawa-san.” Kageyama responded brazenly, making Oikawa to huff in frustration, dramatically turning away.

“Oikawa, we’ve been coming here almost every single morning for years at this point, and you have never changed your order once. Stop making a scene.” Iwaizumi deadpanned as he took out some cash from the front pocket of his bag. Oikawa swivelled towards him, acting offended.

“So rude, Iwa-chan!”

By the time Hinata had finished handing Iwaizumi his change, Kageyama had both drinks ready at the hand off counter.

“Your medium half sweet, light foam, triple shot mocha with extra mocha drizzle.” he pushed the cup towards Oikawa firmly, and the man looked at it with an angered grin. “And here is your medium triple shot americano, Iwaizumi-san.”

“Ah Tobio-chan, how I’ve missed your beautiful drinks,” Oikawa exclaimed sarcastically as he started to walk away slowly, instantly receiving a light smack upside the head from his companion.

“Why are you acting like you’re pissed off that he made your drink well? You really are a child, crappy Oikawa.” Iwaizumi followed him slowly.

Much further into the cafe, Kageyama could hear Oikawa respond with “it’s because he pisses me off.” in a much more hushed tone, but Kageyama knew the volume was purposefully high enough for him to hear it.

Kageyama watched them walk away, silently praying that they were on their way to exit the store. Sadly, just to add to his already impossible day, the duo took a familiar seat at a table near the middle of the store. They sat side by side facing towards the bar and cash register, Iwaizumi continuing to call Oikawa trite profanities. 

Their chatting (or more so lecturing from Iwaizumi) slowly came to a simmer as the two of them took out their laptops and put their own respective headphones on, and began typing away.

“Do you know them?” Hinata asked suddenly, breaking Kageyama’s flaming staredown at the working pair who by this point had ceased to pay attention to him. 

“Yes.” He crudely responded, eyeing his coworker. “They’re morning regulars, don’t _you_ know them by now?” 

“Of course I do!” Hinata answered defensively, “they come in every morning and sit at that exact table everyday, doing work until the morning rush starts! They come in so early they’re usually the first people I serve.”

“Mhm,” was all Kageyama acknowledged.

“They’re both in fourth year,” Hinata continued. “Oikawa-san is studying astronomy, while Iwaizumi-san is studying business and economy.”

“How do you know all this?” Kageyama asked incredulously.

Hinata shrugged, “Well they come in all the time, so of course I’m going to talk to them.”

Not feeling the need to respond, Kageyama reverted back to staring angrily at the brown haired customer.

“Do you know them outside of work?” Hinata pressed, his guess making Kageyama glance to the ceiling.

“I guess you could say that.” 

The ominous and short response was enough for Hinata to back off the question, leading him towards behind the bar again. 

“So, can we start with the training now?” He held two steaming pitchers in his hands hopefully, handing one towards Kageyama. He accepted the pitcher, as he looked at his eager comrade. 

Kageyama nodded, which led to Hinata jumping with jubilance. 

_Maybe his ambition will translate into quick learning,_ Kageyama thought with growing confidence. Maybe his day won’t be so bad overall.

* * *

‘Maybe’ was the keyword in Kageyama’s thought process from before, he realized as he dumped another latte down the sink. ‘Maybe’ was not a definite answer, which was tragic really. 

Save for a few sporadic customers, the last hour was spent on trying to teach Hinata how to steam milk.

Trying.

Kageyama could not quite comprehend why this task was so seemingly impossible for his trainee. Yes, it usually is difficult to do anything new for the first time, but watching Hinata continuously make the same mistakes over and over again made the situation seem hopeless. 

And the more Hinata failed, the more Kageyama felt his irritation reach new levels of exasperation. 

“Hinata, stop pulling the milk so far down from the steam wand when it’s in the middle of steaming. You’re splashing it everywhere.”

“But the last attempt you said I was keeping it too deep into the pitcher! Which is it?!”

“Dumbass, you’re doing the extremes of whatever I say to you! Stop being so much!”

“What does that even mean?!”

The two had been bickering endlessly, and every so often Kageyama could hear the sound of a slight snicker from beyond the cafe. Whenever he’d raise his head up in fury, all he was met with was an smugly innocent looking Oikawa working away on his laptop. Kageyama didn’t fail to notice his headphones were very much no longer in sight.

“Just…” he began, not really sure where he was going with that. Moving fully on instinct, he poured milk into the steaming pitcher once more and shoved it towards Hinata wordlessly.

Tensely, Hinata accepted the pitcher, and brought it slowly into the steam wand for the umpteenth time. Out of nowhere, Kageyama moved towards right next to him, almost too close for comfort. Kageyama placed his hands atop of Hinata’s smaller ones, making the latter look at him wide eyed and suspicious.

“I’m going to steam the milk with you. Clearly you are unable to get a feel for what you are looking for when steaming, so I don’t think there is any other option than to do it for you.”

Before Hinata could retaliate, Kageyama pulled down the lever as the loud shriek from the steam wand began. Hands on hands, he guided their shared pitcher down gently, his palms still and mind staying calm as he pulled it down. Kageyama’s larger hands covered Hinata’s, his fingertips able to not only envelope the petite hands, but also touch some of the pitcher. Feeling the warmth on the tips of his fingers, he released one hand and lifted the lever up, then removing the pitcher. 

Kageyama tapped the pitcher onto the counter softly, and then swirled the milk around, the liquid looking glossy, coating the walls like it was wet paint.

“There,” he declared, pushing the pitcher towards his awestruck coworker. “Perfectly steamed milk.”

“That was kind of beautiful.” a new voice emerged from behind them, as the duo turned towards the backroom. There, standing in front of it, was a bundled up individual, with dark hair and a blonde streak peeking out from the front of his beanie. 

“Noya-san!” Hinata began running to his coworker, bringing the pitcher filled with milk with him.

“Shouyou!” He shouted back, Hinata stopping right in front of him. The shorter of the two small men gave him a pat on the head, both smiling cheerfully. 

“Look at my perfectly steamed milk!” He showed him proudly, causing Noya’s jaw to drop. They looked as though they were children showing off a brand new toy.

“Looks great Shouyou! Good work!”

_I’m the one who steamed it_ , Kageyama thought childishly, wanting to intervene. Nishinoya then looked at him and approached him, entering behind the bar still fully decked out in his fall gear. 

“Kageyama!” He exclaimed, his joyous glow never faltering. “So good to see you again! It’s been forever.”

Kageyama nodded, bowing down a little further than necessary. “I look forward to working with you consistently again, Nishinoya-san.”

Nishinoya chuckled at this, giving Kageyama a pat on the back. 

“Same old Kageyama I see.”

Kageyama wasn’t lying, he was beyond ready to have a third person with him during this shift. Nishinoya was not only one of the strongest baristas in the store, but he was also a lot more considerate than Kageyama was. Even if his bouts of energy could be unnerving in the morning, Kageyama was sure that there was no better person to help train his lost cause of a coworker than him.

“I’ll be back on the floor in a minute, and then we can start running your breaks.” Nishinoya announced as he left towards the backroom. He exited quickly, the swish of the doors still swaying as Hinata turned to Kageyama. They looked at each other for a moment blankly, neither one of them saying anything. Hinata was the first to break the silence.

“Your hands are soft.” Hinata casually mentioned, causing Kageyama to back away dumbfounded.

“What is that supposed to mean?” He raised his voice, unknown anger rising. 

Hinata shrugged as he turned towards the large window, the sun finally showing itself to the world. “It means you have soft hands? I don’t know.”

Kageyama could not be more puzzled by the man in front of him, overwhelmed at the thought that they have only known each other for a mere few hours, yet the frustration he gave him makes it feels as though they’ve known each other for much longer.

“We wash our hands so much in this job,” he mindlessly continued, staring at the rising light from outside. “I would think everyone would have really dry or gross hands working here. But you don’t.”

Kageyama felt the need to thank him, but no words came out. To his luck (or dismay) Nishinoya had re-entered the floor silently, jacket and hat now off and apron on. He scratched the top of his gravity defying hair.

“I feel like I just walked in on something I shouldn’t have listened to.” 

Kageyama could feel heat rising to his cheeks, whereas Hinata just stared at Nishinoya perplexed. 

“What do you mean?”

Nishinoya merely shook his head with a small grin, before lightly pushing Hinata towards the backroom. 

“Just go on your break Shouyou, it’s well deserved after that nice foam!”

Hinata skipped off the floor at the compliment, clearly elated to be praised on his work. Kageyama took note of this, wondering if he could possibly be able to compliment his rowdy coworker when he succeeded at something.

_Probably not_ , he thought to himself as Nishinoya approached the now sunken foam that had been left and forgotten on the counter.

“Say Kageyama,” he began, dumping the dead cold foam into the sink. “You think you could teach me how to make nice foam like that?” 

Nishinoya motioned his hands over Kageyama’s, hovering above where they rested on either of his sides. 

“No, Nishinoya-san. You already make perfect drinks.” He responded, embarrassment now ingrained within him.

“But no special treatment like you gave Shouyou?” he teased, a playful smile etched on his cheeks. 

Before there was any time to counter, a few customers entered all at once. Kageyama naturally headed toward behind the bar, and Nishinoya stepped towards the cash register with a loud “good morning!” leaving his lips. 

Kageyama watched Oikawa and Iwaizumi finally packed up their belongings, preparing to leave as a few more customers poured in. 

In the very least, he didn’t have to see that smug face in his peripheral vision anymore for the rest of the day. And with the oncoming big rush, Kageyama grabbed two pitchers in preparation. 

It was time for his absolute favourite part of the job, and the reason he loves peak busy hours. The chance to make perfect drinks for every single person that enters that door brought him a certain kind of happiness that he never could compare to anything else. It was so satisfying to make beautifully crafted drinks at an incomparable speed.

Even though his first shift with his new coworker was more than arduous, there was something about this new task presented before him. Hinata may be loud and immature at best, but the look in his eye that screamed “I will succeed” whenever he tried something new was thrilling to Kageyama. 

Mornings with Hinata seemed to have already begun a transformation in Kageyama’s life, and he was ready to take on this challenge head on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the kind words and kudos from the last chapter! i've just about finished writing everything, only two more chapters to go. so updates will come fairly quickly!


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay Hinata, focus on scent when you’re smelling this coffee. It’s our lightest roast, you should be able to pick up on some sort of flavour.”

Hinata deeply inhaled through his nose, holding the small sample cup right to his nose. He used his free hand to create a dome between the cup and his nose, his determination in his eyes not wavering. Kageyama mirrored his action, and watched him intently. 

In front of them laid many small cups of coffee, all with their roasts labeled on the side of them. And in the middle of the array of cups was a plate filled with a variety of pastries they sold, cut up for them to share. Kageyama decided that their task to learn today was how to properly taste and describe coffee, taking a break from their usual bar practice in the mornings. 

It was a rainy morning well into the second week of them working together. Although the cold downpour was heavy, it could not stop the two coworkers from racing to the door at 5:00 am. Even though Hinata was the first to reach the entrance, Kageyama wasn’t sure just how much his victory was worth celebrating, considering he had slipped in the final strides of his pursuit, body slamming himself into the doorway. Kageyama was unable to keep himself from snickering the entire time they prepared the store for opening, which was met with endless bouts of “shut up!” from his slightly sore colleague.

Their first week together was quite the eye opening experience. With barely any customers entering their doors for the first two to three hours of being open, it left Kageyama with ample training time. 

Trying to teach Hinata how to make drinks properly was a hindrance. He seemed to be unable to follow proper instructions, and that of course would lead to Kageyama’s frustration being pushed over the limit. It would then always lead to the two of them arguing, which was usually followed by the distant cackles of Oikawa and Iwaizumi that never ceased to make Kageyama’s morning just that much more intolerable. 

Nishinoya was no better at training, Kageyama was quick to realize. Usually after their morning rush while the store entered a lull, their elder barista would give the whole training idea a go. But his instructions seemed to go right over Hinata’s head more often than not.

_“All you do is go ‘fwoom’ with the pitcher,” Nishinoya motioned, pretending as if he were actually making the drink. “And while it's ‘fwooming’, the steam wand will go ‘shwaaaa!’ until it goes quiet and then boom! Perfectly steamed milk.”_

It had made perfect sense to Kageyama, but Hinata’s dumbfounded stare paired with his unmoving body spoke enough that he was definitely not following. 

Despite all odds though, it did seem as though Hinata was improving, even if it was little by little. He had already gone from “this is unservable” to “this is bad”, which to Kageyama, was an upgrade. 

The incredibly loud sound of Hinata taking a second deep inhale quickly snapped Kageyama out of his deep thought process, feeling slight annoyance at how unnecessarily noisy he was being. The trainer sighed as he took a second sniff as well.

“It smells… dark and bitter!”

Well, that was better than any other attempt Hinata had made when trying to describe the scents of the first three coffees. Not a good attempt, but improvement is improvement. Kageyama nodded as he took a big sip of the coffee. Hinata followed in suit, also taking a large gulp of the fourth cup of the day, and then set it down.

“Well?” Kageyama started, also placing his cup on the counter in front of him. “How would you describe the taste?”

“Mmmmm,” was the noise that escaped his lips as he furrowed his eyebrows, and Kageyama felt hopeful for a moment. After spending numerous hours with his smaller companion, he had learned a few things about the way he learns. And that exact face paired with that specific noise meant that even though he didn’t _really_ understand what was happening, he was trying his damn hardest to figure it out. 

“It tastes…” he began, tapping his chin as his crunched face contorted even more. “It tastes…”

The anticipation was driving Kageyama mad.

“It tastes like…” he bit his lip with his eyes closed, before immediately opening them. He turned towards Kageyama fast, hyper focused.

“It tastes like dirty water!” Hinata whined, shoving away yet another cup. Kageyama let out a defeated sigh, dumping all of the remains of their coffee tastings into the sink beside them. “I don’t get it Kageyama! Coffee smells like coffee, and coffee tastes like coffee. How am I supposed to be able to describe all of this when it’s all the same!”

Kageyama shook his head, tossing out all of their now empty sample cups into the trash can.

“Maybe you need to expand your vocabulary,” Kageyama explained, receiving a puzzled look from his coworker.

“You’re telling me that I need to expand my vocabulary?” Hinata laughed, then muttering in a low voice “dumbass Hinata.”

“Think about describing your favourite food,” he continued, fully ignoring the fact that he was being made fun of. “Like an orange. It’s sweet, citrusy, sometimes a little sour.”

Hinata nodded, giving his full attention to Kageyama. It was sometimes overwhelming, having Hinata look at him so intensely. The way his amber eyes would lock onto his own would make him feel trapped, and looking away would make him feel consumed by the stare. 

“That coffee we just tasted, I would describe it as nutty, almost with notes of brown sugar. Lighter roasts often have those types of flavour notes to them.”

“Right,” Hinata said, quickly turning away. “I think I get it. Sort of.”

Hinata reached towards the plate of pastries, and took a piece of a lemon bar. Chewing the bar intently, he offhandedly mentioned with his mouth still full, “that coffee pairs well with the lemon bar.”

Kageyama took the other half of the bar, and popped the piece into his mouth. While chewing, he was surprised at the combination.

“You’re right,” Kageyama commended, earning a shimmering smile and shiny wide eyes from his coworker.

“I am?!”

His mouth was still full, crumbs of crust on the corners of his mouth. His earnest look brought ease to Kageyama as he nodded, taking away the plate of pastries and moving them to a less intrusive spot. At the very least, Hinata was able to pair the coffee properly with a food that made sense, and that was a win for Kageyama. The describing part can continue tomorrow.

The front door swung open, and there entered Oikawa and Iwaizumi on cue. Kageyama glanced at the time on the screen above the cash register, reading 6:00 am on the dot. 

The duo chose to make their way towards their regular table first before ordering, removing their drenched coats and putting their umbrellas off to the side. Oikawa looked fairly displeased, Kageyama noted. His hair was soaking wet, whereas Iwaizumi was completely dry. 

Kageyama eyed the scene closely, trying to figure out what had just happened prior. _Oikawa-san probably forgot his umbrella before he had met up with Iwaizumi-san to walk over here,_ was his guess. It was a bit of a long shot, but he didn’t really care that much anyway. 

Hinata walked towards the cash register with unsteady steps, before halting at the screen. He seemed to be slightly shaking, his head turning ever so marginally in different directions. 

Kageyama eyed his vibrating coworker, confused at his sporadic behaviour. It's not unlike Hinata to be random, but this was outright strange. Kageyama chose to let the thought go, and lowered his head and focused on making their drinks as the two regulars walked towards the bouncing Hinata.

“Hi!” he shouted, causing all three of them to look at each other with slight bafflement. It seemed as though even Hinata was shocked by his own loss of control of volume for a moment. He chuckled nervously as he cleared his throat. “What can I get for you?!”

It was not as loud as his initial greeting, but it was still loud enough to cause the two customers to turn to each other, sharing perplexed looks. The nervous laugh left Hinata once more.

“The usual right?! Of course you want the usual, I don’t know why I even asked!” 

Kageyama finished the excessive amount of chocolate drizzle of Oikawa’s signature beverage, putting it beside Iwaizumi’s drink already sitting at the handoff counter. He watched Hinata shuffle his weight between his feet quickly.

“Are you okay?” Iwaizumi asked as he handed Hinata cash. He shakily received the money as he popped open the cash register, taking out the change he owed them.

“I am definitely okay!” he exclaimed with an edge to his voice. “Just drank a little more caffeine than I’m used to.”

Ah, now that made more sense to Kageyama. They did spend the first half hour of their morning tasting many different coffees.

“Are _you_ okay?” Hinata countered.

Iwaizumi shrugged, and Hinata shifted to the left to face Oikawa. 

“What about you, Oikawa-san? You looked pissed off when you first walked in.”

Iwaizumi immediately snickered, and Kageyama had to bite his tongue not to join in. The sheer bluntness of Hinata interacting with customers was always intriguing to watch, because he did not have even close to a filter. Oikawa looked at Hinata diligently, before a deep sigh escaped his lips.

“Very perceptive of you Chibi-chan,” Oikawa laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. “I am indeed pissed off. I had quite a shitty start to my morning.” 

“What happened?” Hinata asked, leaning a bit too forward past the counter. Iwaizumi’s snicker turned into a full on laugh, as Oikawa crossed his arms and turned away dejectedly. 

“It’s because Oikawa is an idiot,” he said between his laughs.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa whined, and Iwaizumi simmered down a bit.

“This idiot,” he repeated, pointing to his pouting comrade, “did not realize it was raining before he left his apartment. It wasn’t until he made it to the exit where he saw the downpour. And instead of going back upstairs, he chose to instead run to my apartment with no umbrella or hood.”

Kageyama nodded to himself from behind the bar, listening to the exchange happening to the right of him. His previous guess was right. 

“I live on the 11th floor!” Oikawa jumped in quickly, attempting to justify his actions. “And our elevators are all currently being renovated! Who wants to make that trek on the stairs _again_ at 5:30 in the morning?!”

“You’d rather get drenched in the rain?”

“It’s only a five minute walk to your apartment, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa wailed with his head hung low. When he lifted it again soon after, he had a dazzling smile growing. “Plus I knew you’d let me borrow your clothes.”

Oikawa brought up the heavy looking black sweater he was sporting up close to his cheeks, a warm smile gracing his lips. Iwaizumi sighed as we walked towards the handoff counter. 

“If this is a ploy for you to steal my clothing again, next time you’re staying in the wet clothes.” He mentioned without turning to see Oikawa drop the bunched up sweater dejectedly. 

Oikawa followed in suit, before turning towards Kageyama behind the bar. 

“Good morning Tobio-chan!” he cooed. “Did you also happen to have a shitty morning?”

Kageyama shook his head, making Oikawa give him a tilted puzzled look.

“Ah, weird. I guess you just always look pissed off.”

Iwaizumi grabbed Oikawa from the back of his hood and dragged him to their seats, thanking Kageyama for the drinks. Once Iwaizumi had let go, they took their seats and reached into their bags.

“You have such a beautiful laugh, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mentioned as he opened his laptop, not looking at the small tint of pink forming on the man beside him. “You should laugh more often! It's such a shame I only ever get to hear it maybe once a year.”

Iwaizumi gave Oikawa a shove to the shoulder as he was trying to take a sip of his drink. Oikawa had almost spilled it, but before he could respond, Iwaizumi had finished putting on his headphones. Oikawa set his drink down, with the smallest smile to his lips, before turning towards his computer. 

Kageyama turned towards his shifty coworker, and looked down on him as Hinata’s eyes darted their glance everywhere, like a cat following a laser pointer.

“What’s wrong with you?” 

“That was a lot of coffee we drank,” Hinata muttered, now shifting the weight on his feet between his toes to his heels. 

It wasn’t that much, maybe at most the equivalent of a small cup of coffee. But Kageyama had failed to remember Hinata mentioning before that he did not do well with caffeine. 

“Your caffeine tolerance is pretty terrible,” he commented, before making his way towards the sink with a large cup. 

“You say that as if we haven’t already talked about it already.” Hinata put his palms above both his eyes, blocking out the world from before him. When he reopened, Kageyama was standing before him, with a cup full of water.

“Drink this entire cup,” he motioned it towards him. Hinata took the plastic glass hesitantly, swigging down a fair amount quickly. “You can also go take a seat in the back for a bit if that’ll help you calm down.”

“They’re just jitters, Kageyama-kun. It's not like I’m dying or anything.”

Hinata was immediately met with a death glare, causing him to take a step back, colliding with the counter.

“I know, dumbass. Your constant bouncing is just annoying.”

“Hey!” Hinata exclaimed, giving Kageyama a pretend look of hurt. He took another big gulp of water, before continuing. “I’ll just stay out here, it’s more fun than being alone in the back.”

“Right.” Kageyama responded, then leaned on the same counter Hinata had been residing on. They both peered forward, watching the raindrops fall, Oikawa and Iwaizumi both invading their peripheral vision working away diligently.

“Say, Kageyama.”

“Yes?”

“What do you think of the rain?”

Kageyama crossed his arms, thinking about the descending droplets beyond them. The rough winds from outside pushed the raindrops to hit the glass window before them, the thrumming of it almost being loud enough to cover the light jazz music playing inside the cafe.

“I like it.”

“Why?” Hinata sounded offended, and Kageyama just shrugged.

“It sounds nice I guess. It’s a good background noise when trying to sleep or study. Plus I like the smell it leaves once it’s done.”

“Hm,” was Hinata’s initial response, taking the last sip of his water. Kageyama could still feel Hinata's one leg bouncing at a quick speed, feeling it against the counter they shared. “I hate it.”

Kageyama nodded his head, now standing up straight and a step away from the counter.

“It’s too cold. And there’s not much you can do outside in the rain.”

Kageyama nodded again, and then turned towards his coworker with a smirk on his face. “Plus it's the reason you slammed into the door this morning.”

Hinata growled, and hopped off the counter, throwing his cup into the garbage can. “Will you ever let that go?”

“Maybe.” was his response, but the lack of conviction in his voice meant that both of them knew that he wouldn’t.

Hinata talked a lot. Kageyama wondered if he was afraid of silence, but would never ask him that. It seemed that anytime there was a possibility of asking questions, he would be quick to say whatever first came to his mind. And with mornings always beginning with close to no customers, the questions kept coming.

Kageyama had learned a lot about him in the first week of them being together. He learned that they were both the same age, Kageyama being younger by only a few months. Hinata lived much further from the store than Kageyama did, his trek taking him half an hour by foot to arrive, which shocked him that he would be so willing to work that early if he had to travel that far.

He found out small things, like his favourite snack being meat buns, whereas Kageyama preferred any yogurt or milk beverage. Hinata was studying to become an elementary school health and fitness teacher, which was a profession Kageyama knew confidently that he personally would never be able to do. Kageyama himself was studying Sports Medicine **,** which Hinata was quick to compare that that was what Oikawa was minoring in.

_“I know, unfortunately.”_

Sometimes, when it seemed that Hinata had exhausted all of his less significant questions of the day, he would then lead into the more heavier ones. He didn’t hesitate to ask about Kageyama’s family life, which could be risky waters to ask someone you just met. 

Kageyama mentioned briefly about his older sister who was a hairdresser, which caused him to shine with elation.

“ _You have a sister too!?”_

Hinata did seem apologetic when informed that they were not close, but Kageyama brushed it off quickly. It never bothered it much at all. Hinata afterwards dove into gushing about his younger sister Natsu. The pride he had in his eyes when he spoke about how talented and creative she was brought Kageyama’s usual tough exterior to talking about family to soften a bit. 

After Hinata finished pouring out his absolute love to his sister, Kageyama even found himself talking about his late grandfather whom he had been close with when he was growing up. 

It was all very unfamiliar territory with Kageyama. For starters, he wasn’t very used to engaging in conversations so frequently and consistently with anyone. What was even more unusual was the amount he had been sharing about himself.

Kageyama was more reserved compared to the rest of his coworkers. He never really thought that anything he had to say was that important, and if it was necessary to talk about he would say it instantly. But these morning chats with Hinata made even the smallest aspects about himself feel significant enough to share. 

When Hinata listened to someone, he would give them his absolute most full attention. Even if a customer was going on and on about the most irrelevant information, Hinata was tuned in 100%.

It was a change of pace, that was for sure.

But Kageyama found himself appreciating the change.

* * *

The bleak and chilly showers continued to fall as their morning progressed on. Dreary mornings like these almost always meant that it would be a quiet day, because it seemed as though students refused to leave their homes unless they absolutely had to. 

Customers did continue to come in every so often, which was good news to Kageyama. He had been itching to make any drink that he could.

The next customers of the day were a duo that Kageyama had recognized. One of them was big, in every sense of the word. His hair was two opposite tones, his exterior was rambunctious, and his smile was larger than life. His counterpart beside him was much more aloof. Kageyama had met the two of them before, since they would semi- frequently come to the store. 

“Bokuto-san, Akaashi-san! Good morning!” Hinata greeted him, and Kageyama wanted to laugh. Of course he knew these two already.

“Hey hey hey Hinata! And you too, Kageyama!” 

Bokuto waved to Kageyama, Akaashi also sending both of them a delicate smile. Kageyama exchanged a quick good morning back.

If Kageyama were to pick his favourite regulars, these two would definitely be up there. They were always kind and genuine whenever they would come in at night, and Kageyama felt himself returning the friendliness.

Plus, oftentimes Bokuto would tease Tsukishima for no reason beyond attempting friendly banter, but seeing how it would piss off his tall blonde co worker always left him feeling satisfied, even if just a bit. 

Hinata and Bokuto spoke to each other very animatedly, with Akaashi throwing in the occasional comment. Kageyama even heard Bokuto ask Hinata about an English test he apparently had the week before, which was responded with a very meek shake of the head. Bokuto laughed and offered Akaashi as a tutor without warning, praising how smart he was at every single subject. 

Akaashi gave Bokuto a look of disappointment, which was then met with Bokuto grabbing his hand, a cheeky smile following it.

The two customers picked up their drinks, thanking Kageyama and commenting on how his consistent latte art never ceased to amaze them. They exited the store hand in hand, Bokuto leaning his head against Akaashi as he opened a large umbrella for them as he opened the door.

“They’re so cool.” Hinata admired them as they walked away. 

Kageyama agreed.

A few minutes later, another pair entered the store. These two were also customers that Kageyama was familiar with and liked. The taller one had strangely styled black hair, and a dormant grin that made it look like he was always scheming. The shorter one beside him had longer hair, dyed blonde but the roots were grown out quite a bit. These two would also frequently come in at night, sometimes with Bokuto and Akaashi, or other times just the two of them.

What was certain though, is that they were always together. Kageyama had run into them a few times at the library, and once in passing at the mall. Side by side, it seemed as though they were connected. Kenma was very shy and cautious, to the point where Kageyama could count the number of times he had heard his voice on one hand. Kuroo would always order for him.

“Good morning guys,” Kuroo greeted both of them, Kenma closely by his side with his head down low. 

“Good morning,” Hinata and Kageyama responded accidentally in unison, though their tones were drastically different.

“Large black coffee for me today, and Kenma you wanted to have a large caramel latte today, right?” Kuroo turned towards his counterpart, receiving a passive nod with no eye contact. 

Hinata nodded, and shared their total. Kenma reached into his pocket, and handed him a large bill.

“Hey Kenma! Did you get a chance to try that new video game you were telling me about last week?” Hinata asked as he rang through the payment. 

“To The Top? Yeah, I did.” Kenma responded with a small smile, looking up. 

Kageyama froze in shock.

He was in awe at how easily Kenma responded. The amount of times he had seen Daichi ask him about his day, or Yamaguchi attempting to ask if he liked the drink he tried prior was plentiful, and both were always being met with silence or sometimes the occasional head nod. 

“‘Try’ is an understatement.” Kuroo commented. “When I went to bed last night, he was still playing. When I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, he was _still_ playing!”

“It’s a new game Kuroo, the first playthrough is important.”

“As if you wouldn’t be up all night playing regardless if it was new or not.”

“You should play it with me sometime, Shouyou,” Kenma said, ignoring Kuroo’s previous comment. “The multiplayer looks fun, and this guy is usually too busy with assignments to play.”

Kuroo frowned at the pointed thumb that Kenma held to him. “What can I say? Fourth year is absolute hell so far.”

“Sounds fun! Let me know when you are free!” Hinata smiled.

Kenma nodded and dumped all of his change into the tip jar in front of him, earning a gracious ‘thank you so much!’ from Hinata. He then walked towards the hand off counter. 

Kuroo lagged behind him just a bit, gazing peacefully at Kenma. He looked as though he was so proud of him for simply chatting comfortably with someone else. 

Kenma handed Kuroo his drink, an impressed whistle releasing from his lips when he looked at the perfectly crafted swan art on Kenma’s latte.

“Kageyama, how do you do it? Your talent hurts me everytime.”

Kageyama blushed as he immediately turned away.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, barely audible. Hinata snorted at his bashful response, causing Kageyama to be filled with a mixture of even more embarrassment, and flames of anger at him making fun of him.

“Thanks guys! We’ll see you next time.” Kuroo said.

“Bye,” Kenma softly added, and the two exited with their own respective umbrellas.

Once they were out of sight, Kageyama turned swiftly towards Hinata, causing the smaller boy to jump in surprise at the speed.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?” Hinata asked, looking at him with a look that resembled a lost puppy.

“Talk to Kenma so freely. I’ve seen so many people try to talk to him -- even Daichi, and no one has ever gotten a word out of him.”

Hinata pondered the question, eyes wandering beyond Kageyama’s questioning stare. 

“I didn’t do anything weird or out of the ordinary. The first time I saw him come in, he was playing a game on his phone that looked really interesting. So I asked him what it was, and he responded no problem.”

Kageyama looked at him intently, before turning away without a response. 

“He’s really awesome. He plays video games online competitively, and he’s so good. Plus in the middle of starting his own company, while also still being in school! I don’t know how he does it.” 

“I don’t know how you do it either.”

“What do you mean?” Hinata eyed him, his head slightly tilted to the left. Kageyama shook his head and grabbed a cloth to wipe down the counter.

“Nevermind.”

There was a few seconds of silence, and Kageyama focused on making his work area clean. He could feel the presence of his coworker slowly creep up on him once he finished cleaning.

“You’re very bad at taking compliments, Kageyama-kun.”

Kageyama immediately stopped wiping, squeezing the cloth in his hand with great strength. When he turned, he was met with Hinata standing beside him. He threw the cloth at Hinata with little strength, causing the agile barista to be able to catch it before it hit him.

“Why? You make such fancy looking drinks all the time without fail, so you’d think you would be used to having people compliment you all day. Yet you always get so stiff and shy whenever it happens.”

Kageyama took a step away, and peered sternly out at the window once more. 

“It’s hard to accept compliments.”

Before Hinata could further question him, Kageyama reached for a small cup and handed it to him. 

“Make me a small latte.” He spoke quickly, and Hinata knew to let it go. He received the cup, and began steaming the milk right away. 

Kageyama watched Hinata fumble with the milk steaming, as he had done every single time he has tried thus far. 

It was quite the phenomenon to Kageyama. Somehow, Hinata had quickly become conscious of what questions are out of bounds whenever their talks would send Kageyama closer to discomfort. 

How could someone be so perceptive, yet so dumb at the same time?

Once Hinata handed him his finished product, Kageyama took it in his hands, eying to foam, and quickly took a sip. 

Kageyama exhaled disappointedly, putting the drink onto the counter. Hinata too sighed, and crossed his arms in defeat.

“Hinata, this foam is crap. Look at all the bubbles, not to mention that there is barely any foam to begin with.”

Hinata dumped the drink into the sink once more, and then pushed the steaming pitcher away from him.

“Making drinks isn’t even that fun anyway.”

Kageyama outwardly gasped, and reached for the dejected steaming pitcher that Hinata had moved away from him, holding it with great protection. 

“Are you serious?”

Hinata simply nodded.

Kageyama was astounded. A barista who doesn’t like making drinks?

“Why do you want to work here then?”

“Meeting people.” Hinata answered immediately, looking at Kageyama as though he had just asked him a stupid question. He continued,

“I love getting to talk to so many people everyday, and learning about whatever their morning ahead of them hold. Or seeing the really nice regulars we have, like Kenma or Bokuto-san. You make all these small connections with these people you probably wouldn’t have met otherwise, and I think that’s cool.”

Kageyama wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“Plus, it seems to make our customers sometimes happy, and that feels really good. So that’s why I don’t like making drinks. I’d have to focus really hard if I was placed on bar, and wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone because of it. I really do want to get better, but until then I am perfectly fine to be the one taking the orders.”

It was a thought provoking perspective, Kageyama had to admit. He had never really given much thought to the whole social aspect of the job. He was aware that his store had many people who were good at chatting away comfortably with the customers, like Daichi or Sugawara. But for him? He always prioritized making sure his drinks came out as perfectly as he possibly could.

“What about you? Why do you work here?” Hinata asked the same question.

“I like making drinks.”

Hinata laughed hard at his blunt answer, shaking his head. “I guess that was a given, of course.”

Kageyama paid little heed to his amusement, and continued, “it’s calming to me, having something I can focus completely on. Making someone a nicely crafted drink gives me the same relaxation they feel when they have their first sip of caffeine in the morning.”

Hinata nodded, intrigued by his point of view.

“I’ve never really paid attention to the people coming in,” he admitted apprehensively. “I should try to focus on interacting with them though. It is a customer service job afterall.”

“But you already do focus on the customers." Hinata interrupted, "like making their day and stuff.”

Kageyama’s forehead creased as he looked down at his coworker once more inquisitively, receiving a look that showed that Hinata was being honest.

“When you make those swans or weird flower-leaf things-”

“Rosettas.”

“Yeah, those. You see how happy it makes everyone when you put that extra effort in. Why do you think you do that?”

Kageyama thought hard about it. Although it made him feel good about himself to make those elegantly crafted drinks, there was a certain warmth it brought to him when a customer showed appreciation of his work. Whether it was any delight at the initial glance of their drink, or having their first blissful taste of what he had created, their joy would brighten his mood. He had had customers tell him that he made the best drinks, which always made him want to make their drink even better the next time. 

He just wasn’t able to vocally share his desire to make his customers - or anyone really - feel good. And more often than not, if he attempted to, it usually backfired and turned into him covering it up by being tense and closed off. 

Kageyama opened his mouth to respond, but Hinata was quick to cut him off.

“If your answer is ‘I only make nice drinks for selfish reasons’, I don’t believe you.”

Kageyama could feel a small smile threatening to come out, but he remained strong and held it back.

“Maybe it’s a mixture of both selfish and caring reasons then,” Kageyama conceded, earning a compelling smile from Hinata. 

“Ha! I knew you’d admit the truth to me!” his triumphant smile grew bigger. “You should try initiating a conversation with a customer sometime. It’s actually really fun.”

“And you should try learning how to steam milk properly.” Kageyama deadpanned.

“I am trying! Everyday!” he grabbed the steaming pitcher that Kageyama had unintentionally been cradling in his arms this entire time, and poured milk into it once more. “That’s why you’re here to help me do it.”

“I guess so,” Kageyama responded, grabbing a different steaming pitcher and moving to the second steam wand beside the machine Hinata was using. Hinata eyed him from the corner of his eye while he was in the midst of steaming.

“What are you doing?”

“Practicing, just like you are.” 

Hinata pulled out the pitcher while it was mid steam in shock, causing the milk to splash on his apron, as well as the steam wand making the loud sound of a ready kettle of boiled water. He quickly lifted the lever to turn it of, albeit a bit embarrassedly so.

“Why? You already make perfect drinks.” 

Kageyama swung a terrifying glare at his colleague, making him take a step back and lift his half steamed pitcher up in defense.

“What are you talking about?”

“W-What are _you_ talking about?” Hinata repeated him, the words coming out in nervous stutters. “Your drinks are consistently beautiful.”

“Maybe,” he admitted, his cheeks gaining some rose tints. He turned his face away, “but there is always room for improvement. I won’t settle for a lack of growth in my skills.”

“Wow.” was all Hinata could mutter. 

Kageyama grabbed his small cup that he had prepared with only mocha powder and a bit of water in it making the powder dissolve. He tilted the cup, and swirled his pour slowly, before swivelling the pitcher in his right hand in brief motions until he ran out of milk. 

A layered heart laid on the top of the dark chocolatey foam, almost symmetrical.

Almost.

The tip of the heart was turned more to the left, ruining it’s balance. Feeling unsatisfied, he grabbed the mocha drizzle and covered the art with a superb crosshatch angrily, then slid the cup towards Hinata.

“Here. It’s just a hot chocolate, so you don’t have to worry about the caffeine. The heart was messy though, sorry.”

Hinata hesitantly grabbed the cup, and took a sip with his eyes closed. When removing it, some of the foam and mocha drizzle stuck to his top lip. He licked it off quickly, a sweet smile following shortly afterwards.

“Amazing!” 

Kageyama continued to stare at the hot chocolate in his hand menacingly, resentful of it’s lack of meeting his standards. He didn’t hear Hinata say anything, too focused on figuring out how to make the heart better next attempt. 

Hinata eyed Kageyama’s rageful stare, then down at his hearted hot chocolate, then up again at Kageyama, unable to catch his eyes.

“You’re very intimidating, Kageyama.”

That knocked Kageyama right out of his trance, as he glared towards Hinata taking another sip of his drink. 

“Why?” he asked through gritted teeth, and Hinata removed the cup from his lips once more, foam once again resting at the top of his lip as he laughed. 

Any hope of continuing this conversation faded away as the door opened with three very rowdy students parading in. Kageyama supposed he could continue this conversation another time.

Hinata engaged in conversation quickly with the unruly customers with his signature shining smile etched onto him, Kageyama watching him intently. 

He was efficiently bad at making drinks, Kageyama was confident about that. But his endless determination to become better at it for the sole reason to expand his strength at connecting with customers was admirable. So if Hinata was going to work hard towards mastering the act of drink making, then why couldn’t Kageyama try talking to customers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i'm gonna embarrassingly out myself right now as being really new to this, i had no idea you could reply to comments heh. so those will be coming shortly! once again thank you all for reading this fluffy little kagehina monster i'm creating. the kudos, bookmarks and comments mean a lot to me! :)
> 
> i just about finished the last chapter, and this ended up be waaay longer than i had anticipated. who knew writing fluff was so fun?


	4. Chapter 4

“Say Kageyama, have you ever loved anything?” Hinata asked one morning while the two were sharing a piece of coffee cake. They’ve now fallen into the habit of splitting a different pastry every morning, since Hinata was new-ish and didn’t know what they all tasted like. It was important knowledge for being a better barista, they both had convinced themselves.

Kageyama sectioned a piece of the cake, grabbing a small bite with the fork in his hand. He thought about it pensively, twirling the fork through his fingers absently.

“I have,” he answered after swallowing the cinnamon sweetness, receiving wide eyes from his munching coworker. 

“Really?!” he asked incredulously, speaking with his mouth still full. It was a terrible habit he had, Kageyama was quick to notice. He seemed incapable of not speaking the moment something came to his mind. Kageyama frowned at him.

“Why ask if you’re so confident I’ll say no?” he glared, causing Hinata to gulp his cake nervously.

“I didn’t say that!” He argued, but the stare down he was receiving from Kageyama made him uneasy. 

Kageyama sighed, and took one final bite of the cake before clearing his throat.

“Only one time have I felt love,” he announced seriously. Hinata nodded as he leaned onto the counter behind him, allowing Kageyama to take the stage.

“I worked at an independent coffee shop close to my house for all three years of high school. It was very high end, most of the customers who came in were business people, or rich teenagers spending their parent’s fortune. And it was not cheap. But for good reason, they made sure every person who worked there had the most extensive coffee knowledge and beverage crafting skills that would please the most fussy customers,“ Kageyama explained, watching Hinata react with vivid facial expressions. 

He smirked at him, “if you can’t do latte art by the time your two week training period is done, they fire you on the spot.”

“That place sounds so… elitist.” Hinata said as he took a large bite of the cake in his hands, the fork now long abandoned. With his mouth full, he continued, “was it even fun to work there? I’m sure all the coworkers were pretentious jerks.”

“Yeah, there were definitely a few. There was one in particular,” Kageyama paused, eyes setting onto a certain brown haired customer sitting idly in the cafe, as he always was at this time. Bitterness seethed through his words. “He was the worst. And he was the one who trained me of all people. But we only worked together for a few months before he left. Thankfully.”

“Was he the one you loved?” Hinata guessed, swiping his hands against each other to wipe away any excess crumbs from the cake. 

Kageyama looked at him, horrified. “Absolutely not. He is the last person I’d-”

“Then who was it!” Hinata asked impatiently, crossing his arms across his chest. 

Kageyama rolled his eyes, before continuing, “when I worked my last shift there, my manager wanted to thank me for my years of hard work. So she gave me a parting gift. It was a brand new stainless steel steaming pitcher, from the same brand that provided the ones for the store. And she had my name engraved in it.”

Kageyama frowned, dodging Hinata’s stare.

“Did it say your full name on it?” Hinata asked, seeming to not catch the tone of the conversation.

“Just Kageyama.” Kageyama looked downcast to the floor, staring at his own feet.

“I loved that pitcher so much. It’s point was as sharp as could be, it made making art so easy. And the shape of the handle fit so perfectly in my hand.”

Kageyama then looked down towards his opened right hand, before clenching it into a fist. 

“I would bring it to work my first semester when I started here,” Kageyama said dully, causing Hinata to laugh, mumbling ‘of course you would’ between giggles.

Hinata received a harsh glance, immediately silencing him. Kageyama exhaled grievously, “then when I moved from my student dorm to an apartment, it somehow had disappeared. Never to be seen again. Although I have my suspicions that my stupid roommate stole it.”

Hinata frowned, and patted Kageyama on the back, much to his dismay. “Your one true love: a finely pointed steaming pitcher, has left your life. But maybe if it truly loved you back, it will eventually reappear!”

“I know I’ll never see it again, trust me when I say I looked for it.”

Kageyama retreated and walked back towards the bar, lifting one of the store’s steaming pitchers. He felt all the ridges and dents it had, showing that those pitchers have been through a lot.

“These are good enough, but I do miss that pitcher a lot.” 

“Mhm, well fingers crossed!” Hinata smiled, genuinely hopeful for the missing piece to miraculously show up.

Kageyama turned to him, tilting his head at him. He supposed now would be a good try to try being more outgoing with his coworker.

“What about you? Have you ever loved anything?”

“Not really,” he answered immediately. Before he could continue, a sleepy student with headphones on entered, followed by a young man. 

The tired student lifted one headphone from her ear and ordered a medium flat white while a yawn escaped her lips. Hinata rang her order out as she put back the headphone onto her ear. She thanked him lethargically, and walked towards the bar area. 

The next customer smiled as he ordered a bag of whole bean coffee. Hinata looked at him a little flustered, and then turned to his coworker making a drink.

“Hey Kageyama, where do we keep the one pound bags of coffee beans that we sell?”

With one hand busy holding the pitcher that was in mid steam, he used his left hand to point up high to the shelf behind him.

Kageyama watched as Hinata turned towards the looming tower that was the top shelf. He could see the small barista eyeing the bag of beans in an attempt to be menacing. Kageyama had to bite his lip in attempts to not laugh at the comical showdown happening behind him when he handed off his beautifully crafted flat white.

He swiftly turned around after the customer had thanked him in awe, nothing but a small nod following it. By this point, Hinata was on the tips of his toes reaching for the coffee beans, vicious grunts escaping his lips as he reached for dear life. 

_ He’s not even close _ , Kageyama thought as he watched the showdown unfold. As his battle cries started to become louder, Kageyama gave a glance to the cafe before him. The man who ordered the dark roast coffee beans almost looks filled with sorrow, as though he regretted coming in this morning. Luckily there were barely any people sitting in the cafe right now, so that saves the duo from potentially getting in trouble over the commotion. 

Further in the distance sat the same two regulars who owned that table first thing in the morning, working away wistfully. Right at that moment Oikawa took out one earbud and went to grab his beverage beside him for a drink, taking a break from his work. A shocked face appeared quickly on him as he realized what was happening, slowly nudging the man sitting closely next to him, and instant frustration filled Iwaizumi before he looked up from his screen. The two of them stared with indistinguishable looks on their faces, and Kageyama watched as Oikawa leaned very closely to Iwaizumi and whispered to him.

Turning back to the main show, Hinata began jumping for the bag with such a pout on his face that took Kageyama by surprise.

It was almost... sort of... cute? 

Immediately shaking his head at the thought of his most rowdy coworker being endearing, he marched his way towards his hopping teammate, and slightly shoved him out of the way. 

In Hinata's defense, the bag was really out of reach. High enough that Kageyama would have to step on his toes to be able to reach it. As he extended his arm towards the beans, he was met with a triumphant shove, causing him to almost lose his balance. 

"Kageyama, stop!" Hinata shouted with a stomp to his foot. He still wore that same pouty face as before, but now it seems that his face was turning red from anger? Frustration? Being worn out from all the jumping?

Regardless, seeing the way his bottom lip jut out, eyes wide and glossy, Kageyama could feel the tips of his own ears going red. 

Cute. Very Cute.

Kageyama stared at him blankly, leaving Hinata to crinkle his eyebrows at him. Quickly ignoring his coworker's confusing expression, Hinata continued, "I can reach this myself!"

Giving his head a brief shake, Kageyama was fast to snap himself out of his bizarre clouded thoughts. It wasn't hard when he was met back with his coworker now raging with new found fury to not only reach the beans, but to prove to everyone in the room that he could. Pushing one knee onto the counter, he began attempting to holster himself up by climbing. 

Kageyama reached for the back strings of his apron and pulled him down quickly. Without any last thoughts of his weird instantaneous adoration, he spoke with a force that was louder than he anticipated.

“You’re being disruptive, dumbass!” 

That sparked an even larger flame within Hinata, and before either of them knew it, they were fighting each other to be the one to reach the prize on the top shelf. 

Neither of them knew how much time passed by, but both of them knew one thing for certain. 

“I won’t lose this battle.”

With one final deep crouch, Hinata lunged himself up tremendously. It almost looked as though he was flying, and Kageyama was caught off guard at such a height he reached. 

Clearly, Hinata surprised himself too with how high he had leapt, because he accidentally smashed his hand onto the ceiling. With a yelp in pain, he swung his arm quickly at the dark roast bag of beans knocking them off the shelf, and he descended down faster than the beans fell. 

Impressively, Hinata stuck the landing. Unimpressively, the poor bag of beans bounced off the top of his head, with a nice little boink. It almost felt like the scene played in slow motion as the orange haired boy reached for the falling bag.    
But alas, his efforts were in vain as the bag landed on the floor with a thud, bursting open on impact. Beans scattered the floor with such volume, causing Hinata to fall to his knees, fists balled up as he hit the ground.

Although Kageyama did actually feel sorry for his fallen co worker, he did not let it show as he once again stood on the tips of his toes, and reached for another bag of the coffee that once were beside the now dirtied beans. 

Stepping over the scattered coffee and defeated friend, Kageyama strode to the cash register to hand off his request.

“Here you go-”

The customer was nowhere to be seen. Kageyama scanned the store quickly before realizing that the only people who were still in the store were his least favourite regular and his morning counterpart. 

By this point Oikawa and Iwaizumi had long taken off their headphones and closed their laptops. They sat there with satisfied smirks on their faces, and Kageyama wanted to scream in frustration.

Before he could, Oikawa stood up with his hands to his hips.

“You’re being disruptive, dumbass!” He acted with a mockingly low voice as he did his very best Kageyama impression. Iwaizumi let out a soft chuckle at this, making Oikawa’s shit eating grin return with red lightly dusted on his cheeks. He laughed with him. “Good going, Tobio-chan! Watching that poor man book it out of here while you two brawled was definitely the best study break I could’ve had!” 

Kageyama could feel himself grip the bag of beans in his hand tighter, fully prepared to hurl the bag across the cafe at him. But to his luck, the two patrons started to pack up their laptops and gather their emptied cups.

As they finished cleaning up, Hinata had finally found the power within him to stand up. Oikawa took a step towards the pair, his smirk never leaving his face.

“For what it’s worth, I was rooting for you to win Chibi-chan.”

With Iwaizumi motioning towards the door, Oikawa gave a quick wave. “See you, Tobio-chan!”

As he was halfway from the door, he took his empty cup and threw it into the garbage can with perfect precision. 

“Nice toss.” 

“Thank you, Iwa-chan!” Were the last words Kageyama heard as Oikawa scurried over to exit the coffee shop with Iwaizumi right by his side. 

“Kageyama!” Hinata shouted with a stomp to his foot, crunching the fallen beans before him. “What was that all about? I was fine!”

“Hinata, the coffee beans are so out of reach that you would need a second you on your shoulders to be able to reach it,” Kageyama responded, earning a small snort from Hinata, his lips quivering to smile. 

Hinata shook his head quickly, ginger hair flailing around as he did, and returned to glaring at Kageyama. 

“Well, clearly you’re wrong about that.” Hinata motioned to the packaging on the floor, half full.

“Ah, you’re right. Of course, just look at what you’ve done afterall. We definitely can serve these beans,” Kageyama snided, sarcasm oozing from his soul as he copied the motion Hinata had just done, arms presenting the mess of beans scattered before them. 

Hinata pouted once more as he crossed his arms over his chest, and used his right foot to scoot the beans closer together. 

Kageyama could not understand the warmth that kept invading him today. Pouting was not unusual for Hinata, he pouted everytime he steamed the milk poorly, which was a solid 90% of his attempts. 

“I’m going to grab the broom,” Kageyama announced, walking past Hinata immediately as he said so. 

Uneasy with his new dilemma, Kageyama retreated to the back room, grabbing the broom and dust pan. With the items both retrieved, he slightly pushed the swinging door and peaked out, eying the back of Hinata as he pushed the beans with his foot. He was determined to figure out where these blush provoking thoughts came from.

Was it the way he was dressed? He investigated, eyebrows narrowing at his colleague. He wasn’t wearing anything out of the ordinary, he mentally confirmed. He currently wore his white sneakers with the red line that flowed through them with the pair of black jeans that he wore most frequently to work. Adorned on his top half was a buttoned up brown flannel, a top that Kageyama was also familiar with, since it was another recurring article of clothing that Hinata wore. 

Kageyama’s favourite shirt he wore, actually. His eyes always looked the brightest against the dark shades on the plaid top. 

“What?” Kageyama announced unintentionally, this thought preceding his vocal capacity. 

_ Where _ were these thoughts coming from?!

Hinata turned around at Kageyama’s announcement quizzically, staring at only his head that peered out from beyond the door.

“Can you give me the broom please? Or do you take joy in watching me struggle without it?”

Kageyama exited the doorway, and handed Hinata the broom and dust pan with more force than he intended.

Maybe this was just an off day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes, this little coffee bean showdown is the first thing i wrote for this fic. then after i wrote it i just kept adding more and more and well a small one shot turned into multiple chapters. this is also the shortest chapter, initially chapter 4 and 5 were going to be a single one, but it ended up somehow being close to 9000 words, so i split it up! 
> 
> forever thankful for all of you reading!


	5. Chapter 5

It was not just an off day. Off day turned into off week, much to Kageyama’s chagrin. For the most part, his mornings with Hinata would go smoothly. He practiced making drinks, improving in the smallest possible ways. Hinata would ask his endless bouts of questions, the occasional argument, Nishinoya would show up, busy rush, another squabble, and that was it. 

But sometimes, his mind would wander into questionable territory. Hinata’s smile was absolutely captivating, and his default resting face was always a happy one. It was much nicer than Kageyama’s resting scowl, that was for sure. 

When there were lulls in their chats (which weren’t very often), Kageyama would find himself bewitched by resting Hinata. Other times, if there was a rush, instead of Kageyama trying to initiate a conversation with customers, he would find himself glancing at Hinata remarkably connecting with every single person that came his way. 

How could someone be so dazzling?

What Kageyama was able to figure out quickly was that as long as he kept busy as work, these thoughts would rarely enter his mind. So that’s exactly what he intended to do.

He only had a little over month left of his constant shifts with Hinata, so it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway. All he had to do was suck it up and continue on as if his complex feelings towards his coworker weren’t bothering him.

“This is impossible, Kageyama. My hands just aren’t steady enough for latte art,” Hinata said, interrupting Kageyama’s deep analysis in his thoughts. He looked down at the cup Hinata was looking at sadly, the foam light brown on the outside, with a thick white circle of dense foam in the middle.

“That’s because you’re always vibrating with energy.” Kageyama sighed, lifting the cup to his lips. Hinata gave him a defeated frown, one that Kageyama purposefully tried to avoid.

“This foam is fine,” Kageyama set the cup down, and Hinata looked up at him with a hopeful gleam. “You should keep working on that for now-”

“KAGEYAMA!” 

The shout came shooting into the cafe with such might that it made Hinata yelp in surprise, leaping instinctively closer to where Kageyama was standing. It even frightened Kageyama a bit, eyebrows raising slightly at the beginning of the scream. 

Nishinoya bolted into the cafe, huffing from his sprint. His cheeks were painted red with sweat dripping down his forehead, the look of determination never faltering from his eyes. With the realization of the loud noise being their rambunctious coworker, Hinata let out a sigh in relief.

“I need to speak with you immediately!” He announced with a wicked point of his finger, before stomping away into the backroom with a gesture in his shoulder signalling Kageyama to follow. His thunderous entrance rolled throughout the cafe, and the few students who had already been sitting there shared annoyed glances with one another. Oikawa had let out an audibly loud groan, which was followed by Iwaizumi nudging him to shut up, still vicariously typing away on his laptop. 

The tall barista gave his shorter companion a steady look, before receiving a nod.

“It seems our teammate is in dire need of you,” Hinata said with a low voice, mimicking the stance of a warrior. He bowed down, “go and save him, Kageyama-kun.”

Kageyama turned his heel with an accidental lukewarm scoff escaping him, and retreated off the floor before Hinata could notice the smallest grin forming on his lips. 

“Kageyama,” Nishinoya began the moment he stepped foot into the back. His apron was already on and tied perfectly, his back facing towards the entrance of the backroom. He too seemed to be using a lower and serious tone, and Kageyama was beginning to wonder if he had missed the memo of today being the day of intense communication.

“You must help me.”

A bit taken aback from the sudden request, Kageyama stood there minorly stunned. It was unlike his older coworker to be so blunt in requiring help, and to be quite honest, Kageyama was certain that everyone who worked there was just as stubborn as he was when in need of support. 

_It must be serious_ , Kageyama thought as he gulped. 

“What do you need?” he asked steadily, trying to mask his small concern growing for his teammate. 

This entire interaction itself was a new territory for Kageyama. It’s not that he didn’t care for his teammates at work, it was quite the contrary. He just wasn’t very good at the whole “going above and beyond” for anyone. He usually would just do his job and move on with his day the moment he exited, rarely thinking back once beyond his thoughts of how to improve himself. But with his new found awareness of wanting to better at communicating **,** he felt it may be important to show others that cared too.

Plus, with such severity in Nishinoya’s voice, Kageyama was certain that whatever he was about to ask was going to be big.

“You must switch your shift with me tomorrow!” He announced with a quick swivel, his entire aura spilling with urgency. Kageyama thought to himself the suggestion of switching his usual 5:00 am - 12:00 pm shift with Nishinoya’s 8:00 am - 3:00 pm. That would mean he would miss out on the first three hours with Hinata, he duly noted. Those first few hours in the morning was something he was growing to enjoy greatly, but if this would help his hysteric coworker, then he couldn’t see why not switch. Plus it had been a long time since he’s worked a shift where he would be there for most of their rushes.

“Sure,” he said cooly, causing Nishinoya to almost explode in happiness. He immediately lunged towards Kageyama, tumbling in the midst of his pursuit. Ignoring his fall, he grabbed his standing coworker by the ankles and hugged him, a spew of ‘thank you’s leaving his lips. 

“No problem." Kageyama tried removing his legs, but Noya’s lightning strong grip on them rendered the attempt useless. Discomfort level rising, he tried to break free with a large step and a posing question.

“Is everything okay?”

Nishinoya rose to his feet, patting off his knees from any dirt he just collected from his fall.

“Oh Kageyama, I am more than okay!” he winked with a thumbs up to follow, “I have-” he paused in an attempt of dramatic effect, “a hot date tomorrow.”

Now that caught Kageyama by surprise even more. He then let out an internal sigh at the thought of actually being concerned for Nishinoya’s safety, not sure why he expected anything less from his erratic coworker.

“I’ve liked this guy forever,” he admitted, with a bashful smile and pink tainted cheeks. The interaction kept becoming more and more out of the ordinary for Kageyama, seeing new sides of his usually confident coworker. “Like, _really_ like him.”

He rubbed the back of his neck as his flustered gaze moved past Kageyama’s eyes. “But our schedules have never lined up! Between our opposite classes, and the fact that he always works in the evenings and nights, we haven’t had a period where we were both free at the same time in _months_. That was until he told me he was starting work later into the night tomorrow, and I want to spend my afternoon with him for as long as I can.” 

The brute honesty that Nishinoya expressed was quite the phenomenon to Kageyama. Never had he heard anyone speak so openly and freely about their own feelings. He had heard Noya talk to Hinata about the attractive women who would enter the store, usually with pride as he would admire the beautiful customers from afar. But it never quite seemed to carry his interest for more than a few mere minutes. 

Kageyama gave him a brief nod, leading Nishinoya to skip merrily out of the backroom, screaming out loudly to the one left working outside.

“Shouyou! You’ll never guess who asked ME out last night!” He could hear him exclaim proudly, joy oozing out of every word he said. 

Just as Kageyama re-entered the floor, he could see the bewilderment displayed on Hinata’s smiling face. It never failed to amaze Kageyama just how expressive Hinata always was, without even having to say how he was feeling. It was something that was so foreign to him, wishing to evaluate it more before noticing a customer enter the store. 

Seeing that his other fellow baristas were busy glowing in their distracted excitement, he walked up to the cash register to take the order.

“Good morning,” he greeted with little effort. “What can I get for you?”

The young girl stared at the menu, a large ‘uh’ leaving her lips as she pondered. With frustration already seeping into his core, he tried to stare at the dumbfounded customer with a blank face. He heard her mutter something along the lines of “such a big menu!” before mindlessly shutting her out, and listened to the interaction happening a few feet away from behind the espresso bar.

“No way, Noya-san! When did this happen?!”

“Well Shouyou, we had been texting all night. He was telling about the awful night he had at work, and it was just agonizing to read how upset he was. So around 3:00 am, I texted him ‘I wish I could do something to help make your night better.”

_3:00 am?!_ That had piqued Kageyama’s interest. It was 7:30 am right now he noted as he gave an ounce of focus to the unmoving customer. By this point she had her hand on her hip, her ‘uh’ still ringing clearly from her lips. Kageyama wanted to shake his head in disappointment, this lady proving further as to why he hated being at the cash register.

“And then he said to me-” Noya’s voice paused, and Kageyama had guessed he had taken out his cell phone to read the message word for word. “He said, ‘just spending my night talking to you about it has made me feel so much better.’”

Kageyama wanted to half cringe from the sheer sweetness of the message, but the other half of him thought it was actually sort of nice to hear such kind words.

“Aw! That’s so cute!”

“But wait Shouyou, it gets even better. I asked him after, ‘is there anything else I can do for you to help?’ ” Nishinoya said lewdly.

“So scandalous!” Hinata gasped, producing a light laugh from the storyteller.

“It wasn’t supposed to be so… suggestive. For the most part anyway,” the playfulness was evident in his voice. “I was so sleep deprived at this moment that anything could have happened!”

The two shared a brief laugh, before Nishinoya continued. 

“Then for a few minutes, I could see him typing, then not typing, then typing, then stopping again! It was driving me crazy just waiting for him to respond. But when he finally did, the message he sent me was “would you let me take you to the new ramen place beside my apartment on Tuesday for lunch?”

“Ooh!” the loud noise of joy and awe left Hinata quickly as he could be heard hopping up and down.

“I was so surprised that I couldn’t even respond right away! Which was bad of me because he immediately started sending a string of text messages like: “I don’t start work until 5 pm, but of course if you’re busy it's okay” followed by “or if you don’t want to that is also okay” which was then followed with “you don’t even have to respond.” So I quickly responded with an obvious yes, and we continued to talk for the rest of the early morning.”

“That’s so sweet Noya-san!” Hinata hummed wistfully, before continuing, “I’m really happy for you.”

There was a moment of silence after Nishinoya thanked him, leading Hinata to progress the conversation.

“so when did you end up going to bed last night then?”

“I haven’t slept yet at all!” 

Kageyama was certain that the look of horror on his face must have matched the shocked shriek that left Hinata’s mouth, and he was about to comment before the customer in front of him cleared her throat expectantly. 

“Excuse me, I’ve decided now.” Her rude tone warranted Kageyama to retaliate, but he took a deep breath and nodded towards her, his bold blank exterior not faulting. “I’ll have a small black coffee.”

Kageyama punched in the order with great speed, before turning around quickly to pour her drink. The scowl he felt growing onto his face felt hotter than the coffee pouring into the cup before him. It took her that long to decide on a black coffee?

Yep, he will never willingly be on the cash register ever again.

He handed her the coffee and muttered her total, and she motioned to her cell phone and paid using it as her method of payment. She tapped her phone onto the credit machine before walking out without a word. 

Moving on from the dreadful customer interaction, he turned to Hinata. “You should go on your break now, before it gets busy.” 

Hinata nodded at his words and strolled off the floor. Kageyama gave a good look at Nishinoya who was leaning against the counter. Now having a better view of him, the bags under his eyes were hard to miss, but the genuine smile that had been cemented on him since he had first entered the doors was ever so present. It looked as though he had been floating on a cloud, and there was no amount of force that could take him off it.

“I’m happy for you too, Nishinoya-san.” Kageyama blurted out suddenly, the words escaping him before he could notice. He was immediately met with wide eyes from his coworker, before the small man walked up to him and gave him a friendly punch on the left side of his chest.

“Wow Kageyama! Who knew you had a heart in there!”

Kageyama felt warmth coming up to his cheeks, as he turned away from his beaming teammate. Quickly aiming to change the subject, he asked, “aren’t you tired?”

“A little,” he admitted. “I usually sleep early at night. I like having a full day ahead of me regardless of if I’m working or not. It makes waking up early easier when you think about it like that.” 

Kageyama nodded intently, mentally taking note of his strategy.

“But, I think I’m so thrilled about what happened that I have this new found energy that I didn’t know was in me,” He explained, before a wave of realization washed over him. “It's like I’ve powered up!”

“Mhm,” Kageyama mumbled, before walking towards the bar area. Nishinoya knew this was his cue to go stand in front of the cash register, taking that as his new position.

“Has that ever happened to you?” Nishinoya asked suddenly, with an immense stare towards him standing behind the bar. “The whole energy thing, I mean. Have you ever had anyone bring on a new sort of strength to you? Even when you’re exhausted?”

Kageyama thought about it for a moment, deeply contemplating the question. His immediate answer is yes, but the ‘who’ of the answer was puzzling for him. 

He had never wished to have an opening shift prior to now, but having his races to the door before 5:00 am hit was such an adrenaline rush. Before working with Hinata, a vast majority of his shifts would be spent in mostly silence on his end, save for the occasional comment, or response to how he was doing.

With Hinata, his mornings were filled with such spirit that made the first few hours of the dead morning lighten up and fly by. Sometimes it was candid conversations about how their weeks were so far, or Hinata’s insistent questions about Kageyama’s life outside of the store. Other times it was filled with him trying his absolute hardest to train Hinata to be more efficient on bar, in hopes that one day he can confidently make drinks for an entire morning rush all by himself. 

Kageyama used to think he would never be a morning person, but with Hinata’s radiating sunshine in the darkest part of the day, he was beginning to see that mornings were actually okay, no matter how much sleep he had or how early it was. 

So in conclusion of Kageyama’s mind, yes, there was someone who brought him unwavering energy. But he couldn’t tell Nishinoya that.

“Not really,” Kageyama answered steadily, the slightest reaction of lifted eyebrows received from his coworker. Nishinoya did not look like he was completely sold on the delivery of his answer, but he refrained from pressing any further. 

“Why do you ask?”

“No real reason,” Noya shrugged, making slow strides towards the backroom. He added quickly, ”I was just wondering. I’m gonna go grab some more espresso beans. Be right back!”

And then he was gone. Kageyama glanced at the bean hopper of espresso, noticing that it was close to full. He was about to follow him to the back to question him, before the door swung open.

Any thoughts went right out the door as he begrudgingly made his way back to the cash register, hoping that in the very least this customer was ready to order as they approached him. 

* * *

The morning sky was painted warm colours, accompanied with a crisp wind as Kageyama made his commute to the cafe. It was strange, being able to sleep in. What was even more peculiar was the fact that waking up at 7:30 am was now considered sleeping in for him.

He glanced up at the tangerine coloured canvas above him, feeling more rested than he had in awhile. Hinata had been on his mind a little more than he had wanted to. His justification for it is that he’s helping him learn a lot and become a better barista. And if Kageyama could continuously tell himself that, maybe one time he may just believe it.

Work flew by swiftly, a fairly busy morning rush that never quite ended. Nishinoya was working more efficiently than he ever did before, which was saying something. His excitement for his afternoon shined through his work, and he kept the busy morning organized and well kept.

The shift went by quickly, and it was a few minutes before the end of Hinata and Nishinoya’s shifts. 

Nishinoya was beaming with pride as he promptly finished making two mocha lattes, and set them aside near the handoff.

“Alright, I’m going to go quickly and get changed. You can just leave the two drinks I made at the counter.” 

He swung off his apron as he ran into the backroom, submerging quickly with his bag in hand. Kageyama watched him book it to the bathroom, Hinata laughing at his speed.

“He’s so excited,” Hinata commented to no one in particular, watching in awe.

The front door swung open, and a beautiful woman with dark hair and glasses entered with a mute expression. Hinata straightened up immediately at the sight of her, and his cheeks shimmered with a pastel red. 

“G-Good morning Shimuzu-san!” he muttered embarrassingly. 

Kageyama shook his head at his coworker’s blunder. Shimuzu let out a small giggle that sounded as though it came right from an angel, making Hinata’s red deepen.

“It’s not quite morning anymore, Hinata.” 

A sputter of “yes!” and “no!” escaped Hinata’s quivering lips mouth.

“Hello,” Kageyama greeted, Shimuzu nodding her head in response. By the time she entered the backroom, yet another familiar face entered the store. A timid yet tall man entered, cheeks stained red. He greeted the two workers with a wave.

“Asahi-san? I didn’t know you were working today,” Kageyama said. 

Asahi let out a sheepish laugh, “ah, I’m not actually. I’m here to meet-”

“Asahi-san!” Nishinoya stormed out of the bathroom, now newly dressed in a fresh change of clothing. He jumped to Asahi’s side, and embraced him in a tight squeeze. The red on Asahi’s cheeks deepened.

“Nishinoya,” the gentle giant responded warmly. Nishinoya grabbed the two drinks he had left on the counter, and handed one to him.

“Here! I made you your favourite,” the smaller of the two smiled. Asahi took a sip of the drink, a blissful sigh escaping him afterwards.

“It tastes perfect. Thank you.” The two looked at each other with a comfortable stare, Kageyama trying not to be too obvious about watching the interaction.

“No problem! Now let’s get out of here! I’m starving, and you need to be back here in 5 hours.” Nishinoya elbowed Asahi in the side playfully, causing the man to falter slightly to the left. It was a funny sight really, seeing such a small man make a physical impact on the larger of the two.

“Let me know how the ramen place is!” Hinata called out to the two coworkers exiting the store. Nishinoya lifted a thumbs up without turning around, and the two left out the door.

Ramen? With Asahi?

The one Nishinoya was gushing about the day before was their coworker? It clicked a little later than it should have in Kageyama’s mind. 

“I wish I had something like they did,” Hinata admitted. Kageyama was surprised at his sudden comment, no response forming in his mouth.

Shimuzu entered the floor once more, an apron tied around loosely with her hair now tied up in a ponytail. Hinata straightened up once more, the blush from before slowly returning.

“You’re good to go now, Hinata.” She walked over to where Hinata was positioned. Hinata nodded quickly, and ran from her. He halted at the pastry case, snatched up a sweet treat, and exited to the backroom hastily. 

Looking at Shimuzu standing idly at the cash register, Kageyama found himself falling lost into his thoughts. Did Hinata want something with Shimuzu? Of course her beauty was immaculate, and she was very kind and candid. Yet he always seemed to be so nervous around her whenever she would come in to take over for his shift. 

For whatever reason, the thought of his potential admiration for their coworker made Kageyama feel an unknown frustration. At the very least, he needed to know if it were true or not.

“I’m going to grab some more ice,” Kageyama announced. Shimuzu nodded, and the barista exited the floor with a triumphant stomp.

“Hinata,” Kageyama announced, causing Hinata to swivel around in the chair, startled. He looked at the smaller coworker, who was mid bite into a cookie. The pastry hung out of his mouth as he looked at his coworker blankly.

“Do you like Shimuzu-san?” Kageyama did not hesitate to ask. Hinata’s jaw dropped, the cookie falling straight into his lap.

Kageyama pressed his lips together as he watched his flustered coworker stand up from the chair, wiping the crumbs from his lap. The growing blush on Hinata’s cheeks was enough of an answer for him, causing Kageyama to bite the inside of his cheek in order to attempt to keep a straight face. 

“Of c-course I do! She’s so kind.” His entire face flared a fiery red, his hands fiddling with the crumbling snack between them. “She’s so intimidating, though.”

“Mm,” Kageyama said, peering closer at his overwhelmed colleague. Deciding Hinata’s answer wasn’t concise enough, he asked, “do you have feelings for her?”

By this point, Hinata’s entire entity was a boiling flame. “Not at all! Why would you think that?”

Hinata seemed quite upset at the remark; his blush still very apparent, but his stare looked bitter.

“You seem to always get flustered around her.” Kageyama responded as nonchalantly as possible, looking past the glare from the fire that was Hinata. “Why do you find her intimidating?”

Hinata sat back down into the computer chair, and swivelled around once more so Kageyama could only see the top of his head. He rested his elbows onto the computer, fidgeting the cookie between his hands.

“Beautiful people intimidate me,” Hinata said slowly, shaving crumbs onto the desk. 

Kageyama let the thought cook within his mind for a little bit, before turning around without a word. He could hear Hinata start talking to him, but by that point he was already out of sight. 

He was almost sure he had asked him, “why do you ask?” 

Evading a potentially uncomfortable question, Kageyama placed himself on bar once more. Shimuzu eyed him carefully, clearly wondering where the ice was that he was supposed to grab, but did not say anything.

Beautiful people intimidated Hinata? That was a surprise to him. Even though there was a lot that Hinata was not good at, his confidence in social interaction was blinding to Kageyama. Besides Shimuzu, he had never heard him describe anyone as intimidating. 

Except, Kageyama realized slowly, the thought flowing into him languidly.

Well, Hinata has called Kageyama intimidating more than once. 

Kageyama could feel his cheeks warming, all of a sudden desperate for cold. He spun around and opened the half full ice bin, and stared at the cubes within the metal bin. 

That surely didn’t mean anything, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surely hinata doesn't like kageyama haha
> 
> ... unless?
> 
> thank you all for reading/commenting/kudosing(?) once again! and i apologize this took a little longer than anticipated to post. i had to rewrite a part of it, but then i moved houses a few days ago. so that took up all my time. moving during the state of the world right now was not fun, let me tell you.


	6. Chapter 6

Kageyama was surprised to be greeted with Nishinoya at 5:00 am in front of the store.

“Yo,” he greeted casually, hands deep into his pockets as the cold air surrounded them. “Hinata called me last night begging me to switch shifts with him this morning, something about an assignment that was due at midnight. So he’ll be in later.”

With a brief nod, Kageyama unlocked the door, and the two entered the store promptly. After shedding their jackets and putting on their aprons in a comfortable silence, the two began setting up the store for the open.

Kageyama couldn’t help but think about his shift yesterday. He spent the rest of his evening the night before unpacking everything that had happened during it all. Between his uncalled for urge to ask Hinata about if he had feelings for their beautiful coworker, the relief he felt when he learned that he didn’t, or the fact that two of his very own team were dating each other, it was a bit to process.

He toyed with the thought of dating a coworker in his mind, just out of curiosity. Nishinoya and Asahi seemed to be more than comfortable being with one another in the store, but couldn’t that cause potential conflict? It sounds unnerving, openly dating someone you worked with.

And yet, seeing the two of them together before they left was encouraging. The happiness between Asahi and Nishinoya together made Kageyama almost crave what they had. 

Fear still overtook him at the thought of being with someone he worked with. The thought could not escape his mind, and the more it invaded his head, the more troublesome it became. 

Nishinoya seemed to have caught onto his internal dilemma, sending him looks of concern whenever Kageyama’s face would contort into something similar to a painful scrunch. 

Maybe asking his colleague would alleviate the frustrating intrusions.

“Nishinoya-san, I… I was wondering…” Kageyama mumbled, stuttering over his words. Nishinoya raised a questioning eyebrow towards his coworker. 

This was a lot more difficult than Kageyama would have anticipated. It’s not a suspicious question, no… was it? If Kageyama could ask it casually enough, he would not suspect anything.

“Well, are you worried?” 

By this point, his shorter coworker had put his cup of coffee down onto the counter, and approached Kageyama, a worried look adorned to his face. He stood still once he was a foot away from him, looking up for complete eye contact.

“I’m worried about you, man. What’s wrong?” 

Kageyama turned away, painted red cheeks spilling faster than he could turn. 

“Are you nervous about dating someone in the store?”

Nishinoya stared at him, absolutely astonished. He searched Kageyama’s flustered glow, searching for any hint of jest. But there was nothing.

“Are you serious?”

Kageyama turned back to his colleague, now look at him as intently as he was being stared at. The blush still remained, but he nodded looking at him straight on. 

Nishinoya burst out laughing, hunching over as the giggles took over. 

All Kageyama could do was stare, completely baffled. Nishinoya had grabbed onto Kageyama’s arm, trying to holster himself up through the howling.

He wiped one eye, a tear threatening to fall out. “You can’t be serious, Kageyama.”

Kageyama pressed his lips together tightly, searching for the right words. His laughter was filling him with shameful embarrassment. 

“I’m not following,” Kageyama admitted, looking for a way out of this uncomfortable conversation. Regret was already filling his mind.

Realizing Kageyama’s abashed behaviour, Nishinoya straightened up quickly, clearing his throat. He rubbed the back of his neck, and took a step back.

“Sorry,” Nishinoya said, looking up towards Kageyama once again with apologetic and genuine eyes. “That wasn’t fair of me, sorry. I just couldn’t help it. You’re a funny guy, Kageyama.”

Kageyama nodded at Nishinoya’s growing smile, still absolutely oblivious as to what was so funny. Had he sounded sarcastic? Maybe there was an inside joke he was missing out on. That wouldn’t be surprising, considering more than once he has heard from multiple coworkers that he sometimes lacked self-awareness. He strongly disagreed, but never fought them on it.

“I’m not nervous at all about openly dating Asahi-san, coworker or not. I’m proud to be dating him! And I want everyone to know it.” 

Nishinoya’s smile turned soft for just a moment, before going back to a sharp grin. 

“Why would I be nervous? And more importantly, why do you ask?” Nishinoya wiggled his eyebrows, his shit eating grin growing by the second. 

“It’s a conflict of interest. What if you two fought? Would Ukai-san or Takeda-san get mad if they found out? Is it even allowed?” The questions flowed freely out of Kageyama, hoping at the back of his mind that if he asked enough, Nishinoya would let go the second part of his inquiries. “What if it bothered your coworkers-”

“Kageyama,” Nishinoya said, his voice stern and heavy. It halted Kageyama’s ramblings, stopping dead in their tracks. He gulped as he nodded.

“You do realize like, half the store is dating each other, right?”

Kageyama froze, staring at Nishinoya. He stared back, the rigid focus burning into Kageyama, not faltering once. 

The taller of the two blinked once. It was followed in suit. They looked at each other for many seconds, unmoving.

Half the store… dating each other? And he had never noticed?

“Who?” Kageyama finally broke the silence.

“You’re kidding, right?”

They stared at each other once more, Nishinoya pensively searching his face, for any clue of him joking. 

Of everyone in the store, who would make sense? Kageyama thought hard as he cycled through every person he worked with.

He supposed that whenever he had worked with Daichi and Asahi in the previous semester, the latter was always being teased by the former. Or in his past morning shifts with Tanaka and Nishinoya, they were always very close in the way they talked about anything and everything on their minds.

But that wouldn’t make any sense at all, considering Asahi and Nishinoya are happily together, and have liked each other for a very long time. 

It was much easier to point out best friends, not relationships was Kageyama’s quick solution.

“I have no idea who’s dating in this store,” Kageyama confessed, receiving a loud ‘wow’ from his coworker.

“Okay, think real hard about it.”

Kageyama thought heavily, his hand resting on his chin. No response. Nishinoya put his palm on his forehead exasperatedly, before he continued-

“Think about Suga-san and Daichi-san’s end of exams party we had at the end of the semester last year.”

Kageyama nodded.

“At their bachelor style apartment. Where they live alone together.”

He nodded again. Nishinoya let out a discouraged sigh.

“Where there was only one bed?”

The lightbulb on his head went off immediately, flashing harder than lightning. His jaw dropped, absolutely shocked.

“Oh.”

Nishinoya let out a breathy chuckle, and stared up at the ceiling. 

“Wow, you are truly hopeless Kageyama,” he said more to himself than to the coworker he was making fun of, looking in the midst of a reflection. 

“I don’t usually pay attention to that sort of thing, I guess,” Kageyama admitted, not quite sure how to respond. 

“Well, coworkers are one thing. But you at least notice like, regulars when they’re dating, right? We’ve got a bunch of lovebirds who come in every morning, there is no way you could miss that.”

Kageyama gave it a determined thought, scanning through all the people he would frequently see in the morning. After one long contemplative minute, he exhaled in defeat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. This can’t be real. Are you pranking me?” Nishinoya hoped, eyes scanning the store to see if there were hidden cameras. But the unwavering stare of bewilderment never left Kageyama.

“Akaashi and Bokuto literally walk in holding hands every time they enter this store, and flirt like there is no tomorrow. And god, Kageyama, have you  _ seen _ how they look at each other?”

Kageyama thought about it pensively, but by this point he wasn’t sure why he was even trying anymore. It seemed as though he had a mental block the size of a school bus preventing him from identifying anything of the romantic nature. He didn’t even feel the frown weighing heavily on his lips.

Nishinoya reached up high, patting Kageyama on the shoulder lightly. 

“It’s okay though, Kageyama. There’s nothing to worry about when it comes to dating in the store, I can promise you that,” Nishinoya said, going back to the main point of this whole conversation. Although Kageyama was confused at the way he brought it back. Was he insinuating something?

“You're a smart guy. Let yourself open your field of vision in this store, and you'll be surprised at how much is happening around you. And when you’re finally seeing what we all see, I know you’ll be happier.”

Kageyama was positive he wasn’t following. But the words were kind, all the same.

“You’ll figure it out, I have my utmost faith in you.” Nishinoya flashed him a pearly white smile, gripping onto his shoulder tightly. “You’ve got this, Tobio.” 

He let go and walked off into the backroom, doors swinging swiftly behind him. Kageyama stared at the swaying door incredulously.

Could Nishinoya see Kageyama’s emotional turmoil? Was it that obvious? 

* * *

The morning moved on casually, a steady flow of customers coming and going. Hinata entered the store at 8:02 am, exhaustion spilling from him between each step he took. Kageyama was quick to point out that he was technically late, but only received a yawn in response from his sleepy coworker.

Hinata entered the floor shortly afterwards, sending Nishinoya onto his break. He placed himself in front of the cash register, and leaned forwards all the way until his top half rested on the counter. Kageyama felt any memory of his early morning conversation with Nishinoya disappear, being replaced with frustration towards his ridiculous coworker beside him.

“Oy, you can’t lay down like that when customers come in, dumbass. You look ridiculous.” Kageyama stared as Hinata weakly waved a flimsy arm at him, face pressed into the cold marble.

“Just a little longer, Kageyama-kun. Then I’ll get up and be ready.”

Kageyama wanted to ask him what assignment kept him up all night, but before he could the door opened slightly, and a familiar blonde entered the store alone.

Kenma stalked towards Hinata, face down while he fiddled with the end of his jacket. He looked lost, searching for a comfort that was not with him this morning.

Where was Kuroo?

Kenma sighed in relief at the sight of Hinata, and walked up to the half asleep barista, poking his laying state gently. Hinata leapt high at the sudden touch, soaring as he yelped in surprise.

“Sorry!” Hinata shouted, causing Kenma to try to cover his laughter with a sleeved wrist. Although Kageyama could see how tired the customer was, bags heavy under his eyes. He wondered what could’ve kept him up late as well.

“Kenma!” Hinata announced, receiving a meek smile from the shy man before him.

“Good morning Shouyou,” he said smoothly, reaching into his pocket and taking out a large bill. “Just a small vanilla latte today.”

Hinata was still very clearly dazed out when he typed in his order, and steadily did the transaction. Kenma dumped all his change into the tip jar, as per usual, and sauntered over to the handoff part of the bar quietly.

Kageyama eyed him, studying his closed off stance. That was normal Kenma behaviour, but the look adorned on his face said otherwise. 

He looked sad. 

Usually Hinata would not hesitate to point out whenever there was something out of the ordinary, meaning he would’ve asked where Kuroo was. Turning his head slightly to the right, Kageyama looked at his usual bright light of a coworker, who was struggling to keep his eyes open and his head up straight. 

He sighed, and continued to make the latte. Finishing up the beverage with an expertly made heart, he handed off the drink silently.

Kenma reached for the drink with two hands, and stared at the full heart for a brief moment. He delicately reached for a lid beside him, and capped it off quickly. He muttered a small ‘thanks’, and scurried away quickly out of the store.

Kageyama couldn’t help but wonder what had happened between the two.

A loud noise submerged from where Hinata was standing (or more so dozing off), the store phone ringing. The consistent buzzing irked Kageyama more and more as he watched Hinata, who was completely unmoving, seemingly not noticing the echoing beat.

“Hey, Hinata,” he said firmly, receiving no response. Kageyama exhaled angrily, and repeated himself once more with conviction. “Hinata.”

The furious tone attached to his name knocked Hinata out of his daze, and he reached for the store phone in front of him quickly.

“Hello?!” Hinata shouted into the phone, and Kageyama wanted to face palm. That is not how you answer a work line.

Clearly, whoever was on the other side of the call must have been saying the same thing to Hinata, as he exasperatedly apologized continuously into the receiver. Hinata frowned as he handed the phone to Kageyama passively.

“It’s for you.”

Feeling a little perplexed, Kageyama brought the phone to his ear.

_ “Kageyama? It’s Ukai.” _

“Good morning Ukai-san.” He responded, feeling relieved that it was not an angry customer looking for a fight.

_ “Yes, good morning. I have a question for you. Do you want to work tomorrow night? It would be 5:00pm to close.” _

“Hm,” Kageyama contemplated for a moment, deciding if it was worth giving up his Friday night to work. Realizing that he had no plans, therefore no reason not to work, he responded, “I can, yes. Is everything okay?”

_ “Amazing. I knew I could always count on you. And yeah, things are fine for the most part. The person who was supposed to close tomorrow had a family emergency, and left the campus this morning.” _

“Ah,” Kageyama mumbled.

_ “It’s okay though, he said everything is fine. Anyway, thanks again Kageyama. I hope things are going well with training Hinata. Have a good shift, and also teach that boy how to properly answer the phone.” _

And with that, the line when blank, signifying that Ukai had hung up the phone.

* * *

The entire ordeal was strange. And Kageyama couldn’t shake just why his evening was so bizarre. Working an evening with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi was something that he often did back then, and it’s only been a few weeks past a month since he had moved to mornings. 

So why did it feel wrong? More importantly, what was making the entire ordeal feel wrong in the first place?

Kageyama wiped down the counter by the cash register, and peered at the time displayed on the screen. 8:30 pm. Only an hour and a half until they closed. 

Yamaguchi was in the back, enjoying his last break of the evening. That left Kageyama to man the floor by himself, while Tsukishima was in the cafe, sweeping the floors absentmindedly. The store was currently empty, which wasn’t uncommon for a Friday night. Usually by the time they’d close up the store, they would see many of the students out and about, definitely inebriated to a certain extent. Parties were inevitable when living on a college campus.

Wiping the counter top with a final push, Kageyama sighed as he eyed behind the bar. The entire place was spotless. There wasn’t anything left for them to do, the evening being so quiet that they were able to finish their tasks way before they were going to close. It was so boring. 

His eyes peered towards the time once more, reading 8:31 pm. This was agonizingly slow, and Kageyama was trying to think of what he could possibly do to kill the time. 

It was peculiar, it’s not like his mornings were always busy right when they opened. And yet those shifts would fly by. Maybe, Kageyama guessed, it was because it was so early in the morning. Being so tired sometimes felt like time wasn’t real, and by the time he would feel awake, his shift was practically over. 

That could be the reason. But there was also a hollow feeling within him he realized, looking at Tsukishima in the distance. The blonde man had his eyes focused on the floor, sweeping in a slow motion, in no rush to finish his task.

It was a little lonely without Hinata.

Having someone as enthusiastic as him in the mornings was actually really nice, which was a shocking discovery, Kageyama realized quickly. Sure, he was a slow learner, and a little loud at inappropriate times, but having someone so full of life by your side most mornings of the week made days feel a little lighter. 

Hinata was captivating. He yearned to improve everyday, just like Kageyama. And they worked so well together. Hinata’s ability to talk to anyone and everyone who entered those doors and make genuine connections with them was unlike anyone else in the store. And he truly cared for anyone he interacted with. 

Which included Kageyama, of course. 

And, it seemed as though he liked being with Kageyama too. They would bicker sometimes, or even go into a full on argument, but it never lingered beyond when it would end. Kageyama knew more about Hinata than he did everyone else in the store combined, and he liked that Hinata knew just as much about him as well. 

His presence was overwhelming, but it was comforting. It will be hard to go back to working without him, and the thought that they were only going to be together for a few more weeks made Kageyama feel an unwavering sadness that seemed to be hiding within the depths of his mind.

The door swung open, and there walked in Kuroo alone. He entered with his hands in his jacket pockets, smiling weakly at Tsukishima, who quaintly nodded. It was as though Kageyama’s inner anguish matched Kuroo’s dull entity. 

The tall blonde walked further to near the exit of the store, opposite of where Kuroo was heading. 

“Tsuki, it’s not very nice of you to run away from a customer,” Kuroo forced a sly smile, but it never reached his eyes. Tsukishima turned his head, and gave Kuroo a plastic smile in return.

“It’s not very nice of you to interrupt someone who is clearly busy working,” he seethed, and then turned back to sweeping the furthest corner of the store.

Kuroo was always friendly with Tsukishima, which Kageyama would never understand. Oftentimes at night Kuroo would linger by the counter and they would chat with each other, even though Kenma always seemed more than ready to leave. 

Today was entirely different. Usually Kuroo would laugh it off when Tsukishima would be cold towards him, but being brushed off by him tonight looked as though the barista had just crushed his soul and buried him. Never had Kageyama seen him look so defeated. 

Something definitely happened between him and Kenma.

It’s not unlike Kuroo to come into the store in the evenings, but he always had Kenma by his side. They would sit by the window closest to the door, and would talk to each other until it was time to close.

Right now it looked as though Kuroo was needing attention, and Tsukishima pushed him away without even looking at him. Which again, was not unusual, but Kageyama was certain that Tsukishima had not noticed how down their regular was.

Kuroo ordered one drink, a small vanilla latte, and Kageyama cashed him out apprehensively. Sweet was never something that Kuroo drank, he usually opted for something dark and bitter. And if he came in at night he usually had a non caffeinated tea, where Kenma usually would have a hot chocolate. 

As Kageyama started making the drink, he eyed Kuroo as he leaned onto the high counter outside of the bar. He pressed one arm onto the counter, and rested his chin into his hand. He strummed his other hand lightly on the hard surface, seemingly deep in thought of a grim abyss. He paid no attention to Kageyama, but his eyes seemed to beg for someone. 

Kageyama made the drink very slowly, trying to figure out what to do in this situation. One of his favourite customers was very sad, and Kageyama was sure that putting a pretty leaf onto his drink was not going to change that. As he pumped the sweet vanilla syrup into the cup, he thought pensively to himself;

What would Hinata do in this situation? 

Kageyama cleared his throat, looking down into the cup now filled with syrup and espresso.

“You okay?” he asked hesitantly, avoiding Kuroo’s glance.

“Mm,” Kuroo mumbled, “I’m great.”

Kageyama looked up at him, evidently not convinced. 

Kuroo let out a long sigh, “does it even matter to you?”

“It does,” Kageyama said immediately, words flowing out of his mouth before he could process what he was saying. “You are always kind and never make a hassle of anything whenever you come in. Seeing you and Kenma-san during my shifts is always a pleasant experience.”

Kageyama was internally cringing at himself at his words, but he quickly noticed the pain in Kuroo’s eyes when he said Kenma’s name. 

“That’s very nice of you Kageyama,” Kuroo laughed sheepishly, “you’re always so quiet I didn’t even know if you recognized me whenever I came in.”

“Right,” Kageyama replied, handing Kuroo a perfect foam swan atop his latte. Kuroo took the beverage and had a sip, eyes closing as the warmth invaded his lips. He rested the cup onto the counter he had his arms on, and stared at it with a hurtful gaze.

“Kenma and I got into a huge fight.”

“Really?” Kageyama asked, attempting to sound surprised. Kuroo nodded, taking another drink of his latte. Kageyama bit his lip as he tried to find the words to continue the conversation. “You and Kenma-san have been friends since childhood, right?”

Kuroo looked at him surprised, eyes widening a bit at the statement.

“I’ve heard you mention it to Hinata before,” he added quickly, feeling the embarrassment of admitting he has offhandedly listened to their conversations. 

Kuroo chuckled lightly, “I guess you could say that. We have been close for as long as I could remember.”

There was a brief pause, before Kuroo continued.

“It’s not like we’ve never had arguments before, it’s pretty much inevitable when you spend everyday with someone. But this one is different. It feels way worse than any other time we have.”

Kageyama nodded, and let Kuroo take the floor. 

“I’m graduating this year, but Kenma still has a year left. And we live together, we’ve lived together just him and I since Kenma’s first year here. I want to stay with him and take a year off, so by the time he graduates we can go and start our lives together at the same time. And yet Kenma wants me to leave after I graduate. He says it’s what's best for me, but it feels like he’s trying to get rid of me.”

There was another slight pause, before Kuroo looked up, searching for Kageyama’s stare.

“He thinks the only reason I want to take a year off is so I don’t have to leave him alone at school, or alone in our apartment. But that’s so far from the truth. I’ve been consistently in school since I was a child, and I think it would be nice to have some time off before the beginning of the rest of my life. So if I had to choose between spending a year back at home living with my family, or a year here with my friends, my part time job, and the love of my life, how is that even a question?” 

It was incredible how much Kuroo was sharing, Kageyama noted. Hinata told him once that he thought baristas were kind of like underpaid therapists, and he never really understood what he meant until right now. And in this moment, his heart hurt for Kuroo. He took a deep breath, searching for the right words.

“Well, it sounds like Kenma isn’t thinking about himself.”

Kuroo narrowed his eyebrows together, giving Kageyama a stern stare. Kageyama gulped, not confident where he was going with this. He closed his eyes for a small moment, thinking hard about the way Hinata talked to others. When he opened his eyes, he found his solution. Hinata always talked to others freely and never held back, and maybe that’s what Kuroo needed right now.

“What I mean is, it seems as though he’s not letting himself think about what’s best for him. Whereas you’re thinking about what’s best for yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with either of you doing that, but if you aren’t on the same page, how are you ever going to come to a decision?”

They looked at each other, Kuroo staring blankly, Kageyama trying to do the same and not show his nerves that were creeping up his neck. He grabbed the back of his neck, trying to fend off the imaginary fears, before continuing,

“Maybe you two should stop trying to look at this situation as individual problems, and try talking about what's best for ‘us’. Clearly you both mean a lot to each other, since you’ve been together for so long.”

“Yeah, we’ve been together since  _ high school _ . This isn’t just some relationship, this is our future,” Kuroo said, his drink in front of him long forgotten. 

Nodding, Kageyama continued, “I’m not sure what will happen, but maybe you two being on the same page is a good start.”

Kuroo nodded, deep in thought. A few long seconds passed before Kuroo broke the silence.

“You’re right, Kageyama. Every time we’ve talked about it it’s always immediately turned into this huge ordeal, but I don’t think either of us have really been listening to each other,” he admitted.

Kageyama was about to respond, but a distant voice beat him to it.

“You know, spilling your heart out to Kageyama will get you nowhere,” Tsukishima commented, approaching the two with his broom tightly in his grip. Standing next to Kuroo, he pierced his gaze into him. “So why are you still here?”

Tsukishima’s words were rude, but Kageyama could tell that behind his cold tone was his way of expressing he cared. 

“You’re right.” Kuroo removed himself from leaning on the counter, zipping his jacket up. He looked up at Kageyama, a smile now beaming from his lip. “Thanks for everything!”

Kuroo bolted out the doors, the wind from outside quickly slamming the door shut. The two watched as Kuroo continued to run, quickly out of sight from the window. 

Tsukishima sighed as he grabbed his forgotten latte from the counter, and leaned over the counter to dump it into the sink.

“That was weirdly heartfelt of you, Kageyama.” Tsukishima handed the now empty cup to him. Kageyama glared as he threw it into the garbage can beside him.

“You say that as if you are the epitome of caring,” Kageyama sneered.

Tsukishima’s eyes widened a little, and Kageyama was unsure just how honest they were.

“Hey, I care about others. I just didn’t know you did,” Tsukishima said while walking towards the backroom door, and then left to put away the broom.

Kageyama was left alone once more, listening to the howling wind fighting against the windows. 

He had always cared for people, at least the nice ones anyway. That he was sure of. He just never knew how to properly express it.

That was until a certain orange beam of light entered his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> he is in LOVE YOUR HONOUR


	7. Chapter 7

Kageyama could not believe how fast these past two months had gone by. One second he’s trying to teach Hinata how to hold a steaming pitcher properly, and the next moment he’s watching him do it all by himself. Now it’s the beginning of December, and Kageyama found himself making Oikawa’s complicated drink for the last time of the year. 

“Chibi-chan mentioned to me that today is your last open,” Oikawa said as he put a lid on top of both his and Iwaizumi’s signature drinks. 

“It is,” Kageyama responded as he rinsed the steaming pitcher, purposefully not looking at the two customers before him.

“Such a shame, we’ve been having so much fun seeing each other every morning!” Oikawa whined, overplaying his fake sadness. Iwaizumi shook his head, as he often did whenever those two would interact. 

Oikawa took a sip of his drink, and lowered it to where the lid lingered right below his chin. “Who’ll make my drink perfectly now?”

“I will!” Hinata hopped into the conversation, determination filled. He stomped one foot forward, and pointed a finger to Kageyama. “And I’ll make it even better than he does!”

Oikawa glanced between the two, before a treacherous smile formed. 

“You’re a funny guy, Shouyou. I look forward to it.”

Iwaizumi and Oikawa retreated to their table, leaving Hinata standing a little too stunned for Kageyama’s liking.

It was true, today was Kageyama’s last open. Ennoshita came back from his exchange and was ready to take over for him, which would send Kageyama back to closing during the week. It took a full week of denial leading up to this shift, but he was actually quite sad that this was the end of his morning adventures.

He glanced over at his coworker, who was aimlessly tossing loose espresso beans into the garbage can further from him. 

The end of his mornings with Hinata.

Kageyama would feel a pang in his chest everytime he thought about it. And every shift leading up to this one would cause that ache to become heavier with each time it had crossed his mind.

He would try to remind himself that the light anguish he was feeling within him was over the top. It’s not like one of them was moving away or quitting, they just wouldn’t have shifts together anymore. 

But still, the cold brick within his stomach seemed to double in size at the thought of it, and Kageyama wanted to drink enough hot water to melt it away. 

The door swung open, and entered Bokuto and Akaashi, hand in hand. Bokuto and Hinata waved to each other energetically, the former’s smile hiding behind his scarf. The duo looked both disheveled and fatigued, the bags under their eyes masked by their unorderly hair falling close to them. Kageyama assumed the messy hair was just a factor of the icy winds outside, since snow threatened to fall.

Bokuto pulled his scarf forward, a loud ‘good morning’ emanating from his lips. Akaashi scrunched his eyes at the volume of his voice, but smiled all the same. 

“I will have a medium latte today!” Bokuto announced, and pulled the hand interlocked with his own closer to his chest. “And you, Akaashi?”

“Just a small green tea, please.” he responded, fighting the yawn that seemed to be clawing its way out.

Kageyama grabbed the tea bag and poured the hot water into a cup while the two were in the midst of paying. Bokuto had insisted that he would pay, fumbling to reach into his back pocket. But Akaashi had already tapped his card before Bokuto had even pulled out his wallet. Bokuto let out a defeated sigh, eyes drooping down, but received a chaste kiss on the forehead from his partner, before they moved towards the handoff counter. 

Kageyama grabbed the medium paper cup, and placed the sticker that printed the drink order onto its side. He held the cup tenderly, and caught Hinata’s eyes looking longingly at him. Hinata turned away quickly, and Kageyama wondered what that kind of gaze meant. 

Reading the label once more, an idea overcame him.

“Hinata, make the latte.” He held the cup out towards his coworker. Hinata’s eyes lit up into a shining glow, and his jaw fell in surprise. Kageyama could feel his lips trembling, wanting to smile at the sight before him. 

“Really?!”

Receiving a curt nod, Hinata grabbed the cup carefully, and took over where Kageyama had been standing previously.

“Make it a good one, Hinata!” Bokuto smiled. Hinata’s eyes widened, nerves seeming to take over his once glowing exterior. 

He focused intently as he poured the milk, for once completely quiet. Kageyama watched as Hinata made the drink in slow motion, feeling the silence overwhelmingly. He looked up at the two waiting for their drink, Akaashi taking a long sip of his tea, while Bokuto was busy trying to style his hair up in his usual way, but it kept falling flat against his forehead.

Watching Hinata being hyper focused on his simple drink made Kageyama feel a jab of motivation. If Hinata was working on what he needed to improve, then why shouldn’t Kageyama work on talking to customers?

This should be easy. He had already done it once before with Kuroo, and he was equally as friendly as the two before him. 

He could do this.

Using his strategy he used when talking to Kuroo many nights prior, Kageyama cleared his throat and let himself speak whatever first came to his mind.

“Are you good?” Kageyama asked.

The couple before him paused what they were doing, and side eyed a questionable glance to one another. They tried to mask their confusion, but Kageyama noticed it instantly, wanting to shrink away into the sink before him.

_‘Are you good?’ Of all the ways to start small talk, that’s what I come up with?!_

“I’m good,” Bokuto responded, not a hint of questioning in his voice. He turned to the man beside him. “Are you good Akaashi?”

“I’m good,” Akaashi answered more slowly, resting his tea onto the handoff counter. He fiddled with the fingers of his now free hand, and returned the question to the initial voice who asked. “Are you good, Kageyama?”

“Yes.” He responded, feeling incredibly awkward. He made a mental note that close ended questions are a killer of small talk.

Hinata let out an uncalled for noise in frustration, destroying the awkward air between them all. Bokuto laughed at the growling coming from behind the counter.

“Well actually, there’s been better days I guess,” Bokuto started, “it’s so early, and we haven’t slept yet.”

Kageyama raised an eyebrow at this, and Akaashi swivelled to face the hand he was still holding onto. 

“And who’s idea was it to stay up all night?” Akaashi asked candidly.

Bokuto leaned closer, lip jutting forward just a bit. “Hey! I’m not the one who decided to come to bed completely na-”

“Done!” Hinata shouted, interrupting their conversation. It seemed as though he had saved Akaashi, considering the growing pink glow that fell onto his cheeks. Akaashi exhaled in relief, while Bokuto looked down at the latte presented before him.

There was no art atop the drink, but foam looked… adequate. Kageyama identified the drink from where he was standing, trying to analyze it as much as he could. There wasn’t a single bubble, and the colour atop the drink was an even warm brown, meaning Hinata had poured the drink at a proper speed.

It actually looked pleasing.

Bokuto capped off his drink, and the two bid their thanks before taking the seat at the table furthest from the bar. They sat facing one another, discarding their jackets and resting them onto the empty chairs beside them. Bokuto seemed to be teasing Akaashi about something, leaning so forward onto the table that he was almost laying on it. Being too far for Kageyama to make out the words, Akaashi shook his head, still gazing intensely at the man leaning towards him.

“What’d you think of my drink?”

Hinata’s question caused Kageyama to turn away from the scene playing out in the distance, and face his coworker.

“It looked pretty good actually,” Kageyama admitted without hesitation, feeling no need to hide his honesty.

Hinata froze, his mouth slightly open. He looked so touched, like Kageyama had just given him the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. Heat started rising from Kageyama’s chest, and he could feel it travel up his neck and to the tips of his ears.

How was Hinata making such endearing faces legal?

Wanting to wipe that face off of Hinata, Kageyama continued onto a new subject.

“Did you know that they were dating?”

Hinata snorted, his look of awe fading away. “Obviously. It’s kind of hard to miss it.” 

He gestured to the couple in the back of the cafe, who were currently chatting away endlessly with one another, both sporting dazzling smiles as they occasionally took sips of their drinks.

“I’m surprised you noticed it though.”

Kageyama shot a glare to Hinata, but his coworker didn’t flinch.

“Why do you say that?” he asked almost threateningly, receiving nothing more than a simple shrug from the barista beside him. 

Before Kageyama could continue asking, a wicked smile formed onto Hinata’s lips. He pressed both his hands flat onto his ginger locks, pressing his wild hair down onto the sides of his forehead.

“Are you good?” Hinata asked in a low tone, the same tone he always used when trying to impersonate Kageyama. 

Kageyama wanted to grab his hands. 

To stop him from pretending to be him. That’s why he wanted to grab them.

Definitely.

It wasn’t long until the next customers came in, yet another familiar pair now reunited once again. Kuroo and Kenma walked in coolly, both being very close to one another’s sides. Just like they had always done any time they had ever entered prior. 

Kuroo smiled at the sight of Kageyama, and put his arm around Kenma as they stopped in front of the cash register. Seeing the two together once again brought relief to Kageyama. The comfort between the couple before him was a pleasant sight.

Hinata took their orders swiftly, and poured Kuroo’s coffee while Kageyama worked on starting Kenma’s hazelnut latte. The duo lingered in between the cash register and the bar area, Hinata currently very engaged in what Kenma was showing him on his phone. Kuroo took a few steps towards Kageyama, leaving his boyfriend to continue chatting.

“Hey Kageyama, I wanted to thank you for our little chat last week.” He leaned forward, a genuine smile embellished on him. “It was very needed. All is good now! **”**

Looking up from the stem he created on his drink, Kageyama nodded his head, the smallest of smiles being returned. 

“I’m glad to see everything worked out for you both.”

Kageyama swung his head to try to catch Hinata’s gaze, wanting to show him that he was capable of properly talking to a customer. But his stare was left to being one sided, as Hinata was still engrossed into his conversation with Kenma. 

Seeing the quick glance Kageyama did, Kuroo's eyes shifted between the two baristas.

“And if you ever need any relationship advice, don’t ever hesitate to ask me!” Kuroo winked. Kageyama felt a twang of embarrassment, unsure of why the sudden offer. Choosing not to continue that conversation, he simply nodded.

Kenma and Hinata turned around, done with whatever they had been discussing prior. Both moved towards their taller counterparts. Kenma grabbed his latte, delighted at the flower atop the foam. 

As the two said their thanks, Hinata responded very loudly. “Bye Kenma and Kuroo-san!”

The farewell was met with a loud gasp from the front of the store, and the four turned their heads to follow the noise. 

Bokuto stood up from his seat, with the largest grin on his face. 

“Is that a Kuroo Tetsurou I see?!” He shouted across the cafe, pointing towards them. Kuroo returned the smile, and pointed back in similar fashion.

“Is that a Bokuto Koutarou I see?!”

The two continued to address each other from opposite sides of the store, their volume overtaking the walls of the cafe. Oikawa, sitting at the table right in the middle of their distant banter, lifted one headphone up to figure out what the commotion was. Turning his head at either end of the noises, he audibly sighed as he put his earbud back in, and leaned closer to his laptop, one hand resting atop his forehead, very visibly frustrated.

Realizing that neither Kuroo or Bokuto did not notice their disruption, Kenma pushed Kuroo lightly on his back, motioning towards where his loud friend was standing. 

“Both of you are being too loud,” Kenma said in the middle of his push, and the two arrived at the table Bokuto and Akaashi had been sitting at. Both of them had removed their jackets from the empty seats beside them, leading Kenma and Kuroo to take a seat with them. 

Hinata approached Kageyama with a blueberry muffin cut in half on a plate, and handed it to him after he took a piece. Kageyama obliged and the two took a bite. 

“Now that we officially tasted all of our pastries twice, I have decided that this one is the best,” Hinata announced in the midst of his chewing. 

Kageyama swallowed, and looked at the piece left in his hand. He was about to disagree, but seeing the two who entered the store caused him to shove his last piece into his mouth. He chewed quickly as he grabbed Hinata’s hand and shoved his remaining bit of the muffin into his mouth too.

Before Hinata could protect the vicious feeding, Kageyama spoke up first.

“Good morning Sugawara-san and Daichi-san.”

Hinat **a** understood quickly why the sudden force feeding. The two of them eating a pastry every morning without paying was technically stealing, and these were the last two coworkers you wanted to be caught by. Gulping, Hinata let out a smile that was a bit too big and suspicious.

“Hello! What are you guys doing here this morning?” Hinata asked. 

“Ah, good morning you two. It’s nice to see you two,” Sugawara smiled. Daichi shared the same smile as well, and greeted them as well. They both had large bags hanging over their shoulders.

“We are heading home for my Father’s birthday to surprise him, so have a train to catch this morning. Since we both accidentally woke up much earlier than anticipated, we thought we might as well come here and wait until then.” Daichi said. Kageyama glanced at the clock on the screen by the til. 

“Cool!” Hinata responded cheerfully, “what can we get for you?”

“I’ll have just medium cappuccino,” Daichi answered. 

“Make that two!” Sugawara added, and the two smiled warmly at each other. Hinata nodded, and handed Kageyama two medium cups, not charging his fellow coworkers. Free drinks was one of the many benefits of working there.

Kageyama looked at the two cups in Hinata’s hands, and took a step back from him.

“Hinata, you be on bar until the morning rush starts,” Kageyama declared, making his smaller colleague hug the two cups in his hands closer to his chest. 

“Thank you for trusting me!” He beamed, and quickly started to make the two drinks. 

Sugawara laughed at Hinata’s enthusiasm, and Kageyama stayed closely beside him as he made the drinks. 

“So Kageyama, what’d you think of being a barista trainer?” Sugawara asked, still watching Hinata make the drinks at a slow pace.

Kageyama let the question linger in his mind for a moment, before he answered, “it was a little difficult at first.”

He joined Sugawara in watching the barista prepare the espresso shot. 

“But, it’s pretty rewarding in the end,” Kageyama admitted. He was sure that Hinata was too focused on his drinks to hear what he said, because Kageyama knew that if he heard him say that, he would definitely tease him immediately.

A natural smile formed on Sugawara, “yeah, it definitely is.” he paused for a moment, before he continued, “hey Kageyama, we have another new hire starting in a few weeks. I have her first training shift on Saturday the 22nd. Do you wanna swap shifts with me and be her trainer? Since you’re now a pro and everything.” 

Kageyama looked at Suga, and let the thought linger for a moment. Suga was the store’s resident barista trainer. And although this experience in training overall was successful, he wasn’t sure if he could handle it once again.

“I am going to have to pass on the offer. I think this one was more than enough training for me.” Kageyama pointed at Hinata, who was now pouring the milk of his last beverage. Kageyama hesitated for a moment, before meekly adding, “and plus, the 22nd is my birthday.”

Hinata handed off both of the drinks, his hands shaking a little bit as he did. Daichi thanked him as he put the lids on both of them.

“Ah, right. Do you have any plans for your birthday, Kageyama?” Daichi asked while handing the second drink to Suga.

“Beyond not having school work and not being at work, not really,” Kageyama confessed, looking away from his older coworkers. He could see Hinata look up towards him from the corner of his eye.

“Well, maybe you me and Asahi could do something after the holidays to celebrate all of our birthdays together, since they are so close to each other,” Daichi suggested.

“Yeah, that would be so fun! It’s been awhile since we’ve had a store party,” Sugawara suggested, making Hinata look at him with an excited smile.

“Store party?! That sounds so cool!” Hinata exclaimed, arms raising as he did.

Kageyama thought about it. It had been awhile, they all haven’t been together in one place since the store meeting they had the day before the semester started. 

And plus, maybe it would be nice to celebrate his birthday for once with friends. 

“Sure, let’s do that.” Kageyama looked at Daichi firmly, causing him to chuckle slightly. 

Sugawara took his first sip of his drink, a wide smile appearing once he removed the cup from his lips.

“This is so good, Hinata! Great work! I bet you that you’ll be flying through drinks during a busy rush before you even know it!”

It looked as though tears were beginning to form on Hinata, melting at the praise. He then swiftly turned to Kageyama. “Why can’t you compliment me like that whenever I make a good drink?”

“Because you have yet to make me a good drink, dumbass,” Kageyama retorted.

Hinata crossed his arms and frowned at him, making Suga and Daichi shake their heads at their banter. They thanked Hinata and left to go claim a table. 

For an early morning, the cafe was surprisingly busy. But what stood out to Kageyama was not the amount of people in the store, but the overall atmosphere that surrounded him. It felt intoxicating, and uncontrollable. What was this feeling that made him feel so heavy chested? 

He watched as Iwaizumi and Oikawa began packing their bags gingerly, preparing for their departure. As much as Oikawa pissed him off, seeing the way the two of them spent every single morning together working on assignments was sweet, even though Kageyama hated to admit it.

Or the way Bokuto and Akaashi were chatting away blissfully with Kenma and Kuroo. Whether it was the way Bokuto clung to Akaashi’s hand as he flailed their linked arms while vividly telling a story, or was the Kuroo’s grip on Kenma’s shoulder tightened as he laughed at his friend’s antics. It looked nice, especially the thought of the two couples being able to be together so comfortably. 

Even watching Sugawara and Daichi sit in a cozy silence as they drank warm drinks, stealing innocent glances from one another. They looked so happy. 

How was there always so much love around him, yet he had never seemed to notice it before?

Kageyama’s eyes rested on Hinata, who had his tongue peaking out at the side of his mouth as he focused on pouring a latte. A latte that he was making for him. When he finished pouring, he had a pearly white smile attached to his ever glowing presence. 

Oh.

Kageyama had never noticed anything romantic until he met Hinata.

When Hinata presented him with the latte he had crafted, Kageyama could already feel it’s heat seap deep down his throat before even tasting it. Hinata’s smile embodied warmth, and Kageyama was on fire. He accepted the drink, and started chugging it down, embracing the burn coating his mouth.

The confusion Hinata expressed was impossible to miss as Kageyama settled down the now empty cup. He swallowed apprehensively, feeling a scalding sensation on his tongue.

Kageyama began speaking slowly. “I like it,”

_I like you._

“it tastes good.” 

_This feels good._

“Really?!” Hinata could not contain his large smile, and the flames inside his chest burst. 

He simply nodded in response. Nishinoya entered the store shortly after, and Kageyama could only hope for a busy yet enjoyable last morning shift of the year.

The shift ended faster than Kageyama could comprehend, being increasingly more busy than it ever had been before. It made sense though, it was December, meaning exam season. Between Nishinoya, Hinata and Kageyama, they worked through the never ending rush, and before they could realize it, Shimuzu and Tanaka were there to take over for the morning openers. 

It wasn’t common for Hinata and Kageyama to finish their shifts at the same time, but it seemed as though the world was trying to push Kageyama towards facing his new found feelings. They both discarded their aprons, and then put on their coats and winter gear. Giving each other a look that they were ready to go, they exited the store side by side in silence. 

They halted in unison a few steps from outside the door, both quiet. The way Hinata’s lips would slightly tremble looked as though he was about to say something, but nothing came out.

Kageyama wanted to say something too; he felt he had to say so much. But no words were forming to explain how he was feeling.

They both opened their mouths and started speaking at the same time, before they turned their heads away from each other, a shared rose spread across their cheeks. 

Hinata cleared his throat, “you go first.”

“Well, this is it,” Kageyama began. 

He hesitated for a moment, locking eyes with Hinata once again. He wanted to tell him good work, that he was impressed with how far he had come in these past two months. He wanted to tell him that he was happy to have spent all these mornings with him.

“Keep working on your foam. You’ve almost gotten to the point of it being passable.” Was what ultimately escaped his lips.

Hinata’s mouth opened once more, words trying to come out, but they retreated back as he pressed his lips together tightly.

“Right, got it,” Hinata responded.

“Thank you Kageyama, for training me.”

He so desperately wanted to return the thank you, but words did not seem to be on his side (as usual). This is why he needed to work on talking to others. So instead he nodded, leading Hinata to promptly turn away and take a step in the direction of his home.

“I’ll see you around-” 

Kageyama was cut off as Hinata hastily turned around, and lunged towards Kageyama. The smaller of the two wrapped his arms around Kageyama tightly, pressing his face firmly into his jacket covered chest.

“I know you’re going to say this is stupid, and that there’s no reason to make such a big deal over the fact that we aren’t working the same shift anymore,” Hinata muffled into Kageyama’s jacket, “but I’m going to miss our mornings together.”

He hesitated for a moment before Kageyama carefully hugged Hinata back. He steadily pressed his hands into his back, bringing him closer.

“Yeah,” Kageyama responded.

_I’ll miss you too._

* * *

Kageyama was prepared to not see Hinata for a while. There was no clear vision as to when their paths would cross again. He wanted to text him, and ask him if they could spend some time together. Ultimately he decided he would hold out for the next few weeks, considering the increasing demand of school work due to exams, therefore the cafe being more busy with cramming students.

What he wasn’t prepared for was Hinata dropping by the store his first evening back with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. 

It turned out that Yamaguchi and Hinata were already friends, and got along just fine. Hinata’s first reaction to meeting Tsukishima was expected, the tall blonde being harsh and cold as usual. 

Kageyama heard the smaller of the two whisper to Yamaguchi that Tsukishima was nothing like he had described.

Hinata ordered a small hot chocolate, and lingered at the other side of the bar while talking to his coworkers or the customers who would come in, regardless if he knew them or not.

It made the shift go by quickly, being able to talk to Hinata while he worked. Even though it was a little distracting, Kageyama was able to fly through his closing tasks regardless of the conversations he was having.

And when the night came to an end, the four workers would exit together, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi leaving the two alone while Kageyama would lock up the store.

When it was time to part ways, it looked as though Hinata wanted to say something more. 

In the end, he never did, and the once trainer and trainee would bid each other goodnight as they left in opposite directions.

That one evening of Hinata coming in during his shift was not a one off situation. All four shifts Kageyama worked that week were accompanied by Hinata for the last hour of the shift, staying until it was closing time. 

And the same exact scenario would happen everytime Kageyama would lock the door. Hinata seemed to be coming closer and closer to whatever he wanted to say, yet would always cut himself short before the words came out.

It was frustrating, seeing Hinata blatantly hide something from him. And as much as Kageyama wanted to ask him what the hell was going on, he always decided against it in the end. For now, in the very least, he had to focus on school and his extra shifts he was working. 

As nice as it would be to flat out confess how he was feeling towards his colleague, there was no way he would be able to handle the emotional stress it would cause him, and everything that could happen afterwards. He was on the brink of failing modern literature, and with that exam coming in a little over a week, it deserved all of his mental energy that he had. 

When the following Monday came with Hinata arriving yet again for the close, Kageyama decided that enough was enough.

“Dumbass, don’t you open on the nights I close?” He asked while putting his store key back into his pocket as he finished locking up. 

Hinata blushed furiously, “maybe. What does it matter?”

“You’re going to be so exhausted tomorrow. Is it worth going to work tired just to be here at night?”

Hinata furrowed his eyebrows at this statement, eyes casting down to the concrete. He did the same motion of opening his mouth a little, words threatening to fall out, and then closed it once more. The same thing he had done every time before they said goodnight. 

“Is everything okay?” Kageyama asked genuinely. Hinata noticed the way Kageyama’s face unintentionally softened at the question, and it fueled him with new found confidence. 

“Kageyama!” Hinata pointed straight towards him, his finger almost pressing into his chest. “Your birthday is the weekend after the end of exams!”

Kageyama nodded reluctantly at his loud exclamation. 

Hinata’s confidence faded as fast as he retracted his extended arm, and nervously rubbed the back of his orange nested hair.

“Well, I was thinking that maybe we could go and celebrate your birthday together that night… and go get dinner?” 

The nerves that Hinata was feeling contaminated Kageyama through his words, and the taller of the two could feel his chest thump rapidly. 

“Sure,” Kageyama replied as calmly as he could, “I would like that.”

* * *

Exams came and went quickly, and before he knew it, Kageyama was celebrating his birthday with his most eccentric coworker at the new ramen restaurant that had opened up a few weeks prior. Apparently Nishinoya insisted this is where they went, claiming that not only the food was delicious, but also had a certain ‘vibe’ to it, as he described.

Hinata had called ahead and made a reservation, which ended up with the two of them being placed in a small quiet booth that was separated from the rest of the buzzing restaurant. The place itself was dimly lit, with many pieces of artwork surrounding the walls. It was far from traditional, however it did fit very well for being so close to a university. 

Dinner had been nice. Really nice. Kageyama couldn’t quite remember ever enjoying his birthday as much as he was right now, and all it took was having someone important to him to spend it with. It was similar to spending their quiet mornings together, except without the interruption of the reason they were together in the first place. No customers, no distractions, it was just the two of them being able to talk to their heart’s content. 

Why had it taken them so long to do this? They were certainly close, regardless of how much they bickered. Kageyama was mentally kicking himself for waiting so long to have private time with him.

After they had finished their bowls, a few of the servers had come with a bowl of ice cream and a candle in it, as well as a giant hat that resembled the very ramen bowl they had just taken away. All the waitresses were as enthusiastic as they could be when placing the wonky hat atop of Kageyama, making him grimace. They sung him happy birthday, HInata joining in louder than the three servers combined, and Kageyama was beyond thankful for the dim lighting shadowing his blush. When they finished singing, Kageyama blew out the candle, and Hinata snapped a quick picture of him in the absurd hat, much to his dismay.

Kageyama demanded for him to delete it immediately, however his persistence was wasted when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and it turned out Hinata had already sent it to their work’s group chat. He silenced his phone, deciding not to deal with the inevitable teasing until the evening was over.

The two of them shared the small bowl of vanilla ice cream slowly, both taking their time. Kageyama knew he did not want this night to end anytime soon, but it was already starting to get late. 

Hinata put his spoon down, and reached into his backpack he was wearing earlier. Kageyama was confused as to why he had it in the first place when they first met up at the restaurant, but didn’t bother to question it, his nerves taking over at the beginning. 

“Here.”

A small box was placed before Kageyama. The wrapping was a little janky, the paper surrounding it was a mixture of black and orange designs with tape sticking out of the edges where it had been placed. The gift was no larger than a volleyball, and Kageyama couldn’t help but wonder what was inside.

“It’s half for your birthday, and half as a thank you for working hard on training me,” Hinata added as Kageyama remained quiet, staring at the present blanky. Hinata let at a little rumble in frustration, “well, are you going to open it or not?”

Kageyama unwrapped the gift delicately, and was met with a brown box. As he unveiled it, he found inside a metal rim peering through the top. He removed it from the box and held a stainless steel metal steaming pitcher with the finest point he had seen in awhile, the same brand as his once lost prized possession.

“I’m pretty sure this is the brand you mentioned to me that one time we talked about it,” Hinata shyly commented.

Kageyama inspected the pitcher, feeling the smooth finish on its sides. He felt ridges among the right side of it, and turned it to see his name engraved on the side. The name _Tobio_ printed in elegant cursive writing.

“I didn’t want to completely copy your manager, so I thought maybe putting your given name would be okay.”

The way Hinata was looking at him was mesmerizing. It was the same way he had been looking at him all dinner. His eyes were completely locked onto Kageyama, in such a way where the gaze looked as though he was offering him his soul. The more Kageyama kept his eyes on him, the more captured he felt.

Eyes like those reminded Kageyama of something. It was similar to the way Oikawa and Iwaizumi would steal little glances from each other while doing their work. Or the way Kuroo and Kenma were always side by side, feeling as though those two were connected beyond just standing close to one another. Or the way Bokuto and Akaashi would look at eachother so earnestly, as though there was no one else who could take away what they had for each other.

Within these past few weeks of not working together anymore, Kageyama had thought he wanted what they had. But looking at Hinata right now, the way he returned his gaze; he realized that he already had that with him. 

Kageyama’s feelings towards Hinata were crystal clear to him at this point, and had been since their last shift with one another. But he wasn’t entirely sure where Hinata stood with his feelings towards him. Except for right now, with those eyes pinning him down, the intensity making him feel a shortness of breath.

Well… it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?

“Hinata, what are your feelings towards me?”

Hinata jumped in surprise, leaning so far back into his seat he smacked his head against the cushion. 

“Y-You know, most people say “thank you” when they receive a gift! Not that!” He stuttered, the redness in his cheeks shining brighter than his hair.

“Right, sorry. Thank you,” Kageyama said quickly, not taking his eyes off of Hinata, who for once was trying to avoid his gaze. He continued speaking, “do you like me?”

It looked as though Hinata was one shade away from bursting into flames, his entire face and neck now crimson. 

“You-- who just goes and asks that?!” Hinata asked nervously, eyes changing focal points rapidly. Kageyama did not respond, and kept his eyes intently on the shifty man in front of him. Hinata decided to let his stare rest into his lap, before steadily replying, “but yes, I do…”

“Okay,” Kageyama responded. 

Hinata’s head shot up, and he slammed his hands against the table. “What- you can’t just go and say that, Kageyama!”

Internally, Kageyama’s mind was a jumbled mess of ecstasy. He could feel a small grin form onto his lips, completely ignoring whatever Hinata was now rambling at towards him in a very loud manner.

“Well, I like you too,” Kageyama said, cutting off the babbling. Of course he did, it happened after that last shift when Hinata had made him such a nice drink. 

It could have also been that day where he looked so painfully cute when he was reaching high for the coffee beans.

But maybe it was when Hinata and him had talked about why they cared about their jobs, when Kageyama decided he would work on improving his people skills.

Potentially it could have also been their first week together, when Hinata would ask him so genuinely questions about him. That was the beginning of their fun mornings together.

Wait…

The realization washed over Kageyama faster than their morning races.

“I think I’ve liked you this entire time?!” Kageyama professed, his unwavering shock apparent from his delivery. 

“Don’t act surprised, Kageyama!” Hinata frowned, “you make it sound like a bad thing.”

Kageyama became aware of his questionable confession, and blushed fiercely. 

“Well, it’s not. You’ve taught me so much these past two months.”

“What are you saying?” a light laugh escaped Hinata. “You’re the one who trained me.”

“About myself, I mean. And how to learn about others.”

“You’ve always paid attention to others, dummy,” Hinata said matter of factly, taking the last bite of their almost forgotten ice cream. He licked the spoon clean, and tapped it light onto Kageyama’s nose. “You’re just bad at talking to them. But you’re getting there.”

Feeling the urge to counter his point, Kageyama chose to hold it in instead. He wasn’t wrong, afterall. Perhaps he could show Hinata right now that he was working on it.

“I want to learn more about the things you care about. You’ve already learned so much about me.”

The look on Hinata’s face was so astonished, and the never ending blush on his cheeks made his stomach feel tight.

“And-” Kageyama paused for a moment, “and you’re very cute. It’s almost too much.”

“Oh god,” Hinata grabbed his scorching cheeks, turning away slightly. “THIS is too much. Go back to being bad at talking to others, I can’t take it!”

“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing,” Kageyama smirked, using the exact same tone Hinata had used to him prior.

Hinata pouted, though there was a clear smile that was begging to escape. And for once, Kageyama let himself smile back.

* * *

After Hinata had paid for their bill, the duo exited the restaurant and were met with the cold winter air invading them. Hinata’s gloved hand met Kageyama’s nervously as the two walked in the direction of Hinata’s home.

The offer of Kageyama walking Hinata home was initially met with much refusal, since it was his birthday after all. But the smaller of the two decided that since it was already so late, and they were going quite out of the way from Kageyama’s apartment, 

“I guess you just have to stay the night,” Hinata shrugged. Both looked straight ahead in their walk, silently agreeing to avoid each other’s probably very embarrassed faces. Kageyama tightened his grip on Hinata’s hand as his response.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t show you how to make perfect foam,” Hinata said suddenly. “I really did want to learn how to make latte art.”

Kageyama pondered the statement. He knew how much Hinata was determined on learning how to make proper foam, and he looked incredibly defeated.

“I’ll teach you how to do it.”

Hinata’s face lit up immediately, jumping onto Kageyama’s arm.

“Really?!”

Kageyama tried to continue to look forward as he grinned, a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks. Hinata laughed at the goofy grin, and let go of the hand he was holding. He stood on top of the tips of his toes as he grabbed Kageyama’s shoulders with both hands, and pulled him down. 

His lips pressed firmly against Kageyama’s in a smooth yet sweet kiss. He pulled away slowly, the buzz of adrenaline filling the space now between them. Kageyama beamed at the shining smile before him.

“We’ll start with perfecting the heart.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes, we've made it to the end! this fic was half inspired by my cafe that i worked at being temporarily closed (and i missed being there), but today i worked my first shift back. so the first heart i made on a latte made me FEEL a lot because i knew i was uploading the last chapter hehe.  
> thank you so so so much to you all for reading! what i once thought would be a fluffy oneshot turned into way more than i anticipated, and i had a lot of fun writing it! i have some angsty oneshots brewing in my documents, so until the next one :)


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